Thursday 18 / April / 2024
Muscat: In a positive sign for Oman's economy, the government announced that's the Sultanate had witnessed a 53% drop in the state budget deficit in the first half of 2019.
According to Government Communication (GC) data, the budget deficit stood at 0.66 billion compared to 1.4 billion for the same period in 2018.
In a statement online, the GC said: "The financial performance of the Sultanate has improved during the first half of this year in light of the stability of the average international oil prices and the continuation of the necessary measures adopted by the government to ensure the sustainability of the financial and economic conditions."
The government report revealed that "the financial performance of the Sultanate until the end of June 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year witnessed an increase in net public revenues by 11.4 per cent and public expenditure decreased by 2.8 per cent."
Total revenue as of mid-2019 was 5.5 billion compared to 4.9 billion in the same period last year.
"Revenues included an increase of 5 per cent in net oil revenues, 9.3 per cent in gas revenues and 45.1 per cen in corporate income tax and a 42 per cent increase in other revenues."
