Sunday 08 / September / 2024
Muscat: The gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices in 2021 stood at about OMR33,909.8 million, up by 16.2 per cent compared to 29,187.2 million in 2020, said the bulletin Foreign Investment Statistics in the Sultanate of Oman issued by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The bulletin indicated that the percentage of foreign investment flows of GDP amounted to 12.6 per cent in 2021 compared to 0.7 per cent in 2020.
The total foreign investment in the Sultanate of Oman hit OMR25,045.2 million in 2021 compared to OMR20,781.7 million in 2020 up by 20.5 per cent.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) constituted the largest share of total foreign investments at 70.9 per cent, and other foreign investments accounted for 23.9 per cent, while foreign portfolio investments accounted for 5.2 per cent.
The NCSI bulletin added that the total FDI in 2021 stood at OMR17,762.6 million, while foreign portfolio investments amounted to OMR1,290.2 million. Other foreign investments stood at about OMR5,985.4 million. Foreign investment in financial derivatives fell to reach OMR7 million.
The bulletin said that the volume of financial flows in 2021 stood at OMR4,263.5 million, indicating that the oil and gas sector had financial flows of OMR3,124.1 million, followed by the financial intermediation sector with an amount of OMR418.1 million, then the transport, storage and communications sector with OMR300.4 million, and the manufacturing sector with OMR112.1 million.
The NCSI bulletin added that the value of FDI in 2021 stood at OMR17.8 billion, an increase of 24.5 per cent from 2020. This increase was driven by the oil and gas sector by 68.6 per cent. The relative importance of the converting industries sector and the financial intermediation sector reached 9.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.
The bulletin said that 45.3 per cent of FDI in the Sultanate of Oman went to the United Kingdom (UK), followed by the United States of America (USA) at 15.5 per cent.
As for the GCC states, the bulletin showed that the FDI of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stood at OMR951 million in 2021, compared to 1,017.1 million in 2020. Kuwaiti investments dropped from OMR807.4 million in 2020 to OMR800.5 million in 2021. Qatari investments grew to reach OMR457.5 million in 2021 compared to OMR376 million in 2020. Saudi investments also increased to reach OMR80.6 million in 2021 compared to OMR75.8 million. Bahraini investments fell from OMR371.6 million in 2020 to OMR371.2 million in 2021.
The total income paid to foreign investment institutions increased significantly by 101.7 per cent, to reach OMR3.466 billion in 2021, compared to OMR1.718 billion in 2020.
The value of profits distributed to foreign direct investors increased by 124.9 per cent to reach OMR2,799.4 million in 2021 compared to OMR1,244.4 million in 2020.
The total Omani investments abroad stood at OMR6.016 billion in 2021 compared to OMR5,935.2 million in 2020, an increase of about 1.4 per cent. UAE topped the Omani direct investments with OMR1,018.1 billion.
The total income received for Omani investment abroad - as indicated by the bulletin – hit OMR58.1 million in 2021 AD, compared to OMR64.8 million in 2020, a fall of 10.3 per cent.
