In 2020, the oil wealthy state of Kuwait finds itself battling an inflating deficit, depleting reserve fund, and high government consumption, all further exacerbated by the economic costs of the Coronavirus pandemic. This paper seeks to determine the cause of Kuwait’s mounting fiscal strain by exploring public finance statistics over the last decade. The research is unique in that it underlines two key events which have exposed the vulnerability of the fiscal position to the oil price. The analysis attributes present-day fiscal strain to the oil price crises of 2014 and 2020 alongside persistent increases in hard-to-reverse government consumption, in good times and bad. Moreover, the analysis establishes that the MoF, in its annual budget preparation process, discounts future oil price outcomes on current government consumption behaviour. The evidence has implications for fiscal adjustment and the institutional embedding of prudence and planning to public finance management in Kuwait.