Oman’s non-oil exports surge 28% to OMR1.8b

Muscat: Oman’s non-oil exports surged by 28.3 per cent to OMR1,827.2 million for the first seven months of 2017 from OMR1,424 million for the same period of last year.
A recovery in commodity prices since the beginning of the year seems to have aided an increase in export revenue, after a gap of almost two years.
The country witnessed a marked growth in export revenue from mineral products, chemicals, plastics, rubber and base metal products, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Among the non-oil product categories, exports of mineral products soared by 39.6 per cent to OMR514.6 million, while exports of chemical products was up by 39.6 per cent to OMR463.8 million during January-July period of 2017, over the same period of last year.
Further, export revenue from rubber and plastics and basic metals surged by 41.1 per cent and 42.1 per cent at OMR109.2 million and OMR375.8 million, respectively.
However, exports of live animals and its products declined by 20.5 per cent to OMR73.7 million during January-July period of this year. Similarly, re-exports also showed a 20.3 per cent fall at OMR991.8 million from OMR1,243.9 million during the period under review.
The country’s total exports showed a 18.2 per cent growth at OMR6,850.8 million during January-July period of 2017 from OMR5,793.8 million for the same period of the previous year, mainly on account of a recovery in crude oil prices in the international market.
Export revenue from oil and gas exports rose by 29 per cent to OMR4,031.8 million for the first seven months of this year, from OMR3,125.9 million in the same period of last year.
The average price of Oman Crude during January-October period of this year grew by 30.2 per cent to $50.6 per barrel, from $38.9 a barrel for the same period of last year. This is against the government’s assumed price of $45 per barrel for estimating budget revenue for this year.
The Sultanate has been taking several initiatives to raise its non-oil exports, especially to untapped African markets. Ithraa has been conducting a series of Omani product exhibitions, mainly in Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) countries, since 2012 to raise non-oil exports from the country.
Apart from petrochemicals, the Sultanate’s focused non-oil export products include processed aluminium, fertilisers, fish, minerals, metals and metal products, dates, chemicals, plastic products, detergents, mattresses and pharmaceuticals.