Thursday 25 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Sultanate’s trade balance during the first ten months in 2017 registered a surplus of OMR1,502.3 million, compared with OMR1,023.1 million during the same period in 2016.
The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) said in its bulletin that the merchandise exports, which include oil and gas, non-oil exports and re-exports registered an increase of 20.4 per cent to stand at OMR10,196.5 million compared to OMR8,469.6 million during the same period
in 2016.
The bulletin said that the value of commodity imports as of the end of October in 2017 stood at OMR8,694.2 million compared to OMR7,446.5 million during the same period in 2016; constituting a rise by 16.8 per cent.
NCSI figures also showed that the value of oil and gas exports increased by 26.9 per cent during the first ten months of 2017 to stand at OMR5,965.0 million, compared with the same period in 2016, which stood at OMR4,700.9 million. The value of oil and gas exports during the first ten months in 2017 stood at OMR4,761.8 million. The value of refined oil exports stood at OMR283.2 million. The value of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports stood at OMR920.1 million.
The NCSI added that as of the end of October 2017, the value of non-oil exports rose by 28.2 per cent to stand at OMR2,600.8 million compared to OMR2,028.4 million in 2016. Mineral products ranked the highest value of the merchandise exports that worth OMR679.8 million, compared with OMR451.4 million, comprising an increase by 50.6 per cent till October 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.
The value of chemical industries exports stood at OMR674.200 million, a growth by 23.9 per cent compared with OMR503.4 million during the same period in 2016. The value of regular minerals and mineral industries exports hit OMR526.8 million, comprising an increase by 35.4 per cent. The value of rubber and plastic exports stood at OMR166.6 million; a rise by 40.6 per cent.
Exports of live animals and their products declined by 16.1 per cent to OMR129.4 million in the first ten months of 2017. Similarly, exports of machineries, electrical devices and equipment dropped by 17.1 per cent to record OMR78.3 million.
The re-export activity declined by 6.3 per cent to stand at OMR1,630.7 million during the first ten months of 2017 compared to OMR1,740.2 million during the corresponding period in 2016.
The re-export of mineral products declined by 11 per cent to record OMR501.2 million. The re-export of transport equipment dropped as well by 40.4 per cent to hit OMR494.1 million.
Value of re-export electrical devices and equipment and their parts rose by 82.3 per cent to stood at OMR225.6 million.
Operations of re-exporting other products registered OMR409.9 million, comprising an increase by83.2 per cent when compared with the same period in 2016.
The value of equipment, machinery and electrical equipment imports and their parts grew by 24.3 per cent to hit OMR1,886.5 million during the first ten months of 2017 compared to OMR1,518.1 million during the corresponding of 2016.
The value of transport equipment imports rose by 58.3 per cent to hit OMR1,430.7 million compared to OMR903.8 million during the same period of 2016. The Sultanate’s value of regular minerals imports stood at OMR1,170.0 million, constituting a rise by 18.5 per cent compared to OMR987.6 million in 2016.
The Sultanate’s imports of mineral products dropped by 26.8 per cent to reach OMR706.5 million compared with OMR965.3 in the same period in 2016.
Imports of chemical products stood at OMR623.4 million. The value of natural pearls, pearls farming and gemstones imports stood at OMR446.3 million whereas rubber stood at OMR342.5 million.
The Sultanate’s imports of live animals and their products hit OMR370 million while the imports of food and beverage products stood at OMR400.3 million.
NCSI also said that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped the list of trade exchange with the Sultanate in term of non-oil exports, re-exports and imports. The Sultanate’s exports to UAE during the ten months of 2017 stood at OMR586 million, comprising 19.1 per cent over the same period in 2016, which stood at OMR492.1 million. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) came second as the value of KSA non-oil imports from the Sultanate stood at OMR399.2 million, followed by India with OMR262.1 million, China with OMR200 million and Qatar with OMR150.9 million.
The UAE share from re-export operations from the Sultanate stood at OMR450.6 million, followed by Qatar with OMR239 million. Iran came third with OMR176 million, Pakistan came fourth with OMR103.2 million, followed by Yemen with OMR93.1 million.
In terms of the top exporters to the Sultanate, UAE came first with OMR3,637.5 million, USA came second with OMR705.1 million, China came third with OMR516.8 million, India came fourth with OMR367.6 million, Japan came fifth with OMR324.5 million and the other countries with OMR3,142.6 million.
