Oman achieves OMR1.21b trade surplus

Business Saturday 16/December/2017 16:20 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman achieves OMR1.21b trade surplus

Muscat: The Sultanate has achieved a whopping trade surplus of OMR1.21 billion by the end of 2016, which was driven by the country’s favourable trade with Asian nations.
The total imports last year were recorded at OMR8.9 billion and total exports were at ORM10.11 billion.
The highest surplus in the trade balance recorded from the Asian countries with OMR5.04 billion as the volume of export reached OMR7.03 billion compared with the import of OMR2.29 billion, shows statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The trade balance with the African countries was also positive with OMR215.86 million, as exports were worth OMR344.71 million compared with imports of OMR128.85 million.
However, there was a deficit of OMR3.02 billion in the trade with the Gulf countries since the volume of exports was OMR1.81 billion compared with the import of OMR4.83 billion.
There was also deficit of OMR677.08 million in trade with Western European countries. The export to the region was OMR187.14 million compared with a total import of OMR854.22 million. The deficit in trade with America was OMR219.92 million since the total export value was OMR391.31 million and the value of import was OMR611.23 million.
The volume of trade deficit with Eastern Europe was OMR77.23 million where the export was worth OMR21.76 million and the import was worth OMR98.99 million.