Good news for Oman as deficit drops

Muscat: Oman’s Ministry of Finance has revealed that the Sultanate’s budget deficit reduced by over 1.5bn in 2017.
The ministry issued a ministerial decree to publish the final accounts for the financial year 2017.
The state budget of 2017 showed a huge decrease in national deficit and expenses and a revenue increase of 11.9 per cent.
Oman’s budget deficit for 2017 decreased to 3.753 billion compared to 5.3 billion in 2016, according to the report.
The country’s oil revenue for 2017 increased compared to 2016, reaching almost OMR4.7bn from 3.6bn in 2016. Revenue from natural gas decreased but there was an overall revenue increase in 2017 of 11.9 per cent.
Expenses also decreased by 4 per cent in 2017 and investment expenses also declined by 8.2 per cent compared to the year before with reductions in contributions to local, regional and international institutions and various other expenses.