Oman's GDP in second quarter dips 11.1 per cent

Muscat: The Sultanate’s GDP decreased 11.1 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2016, registering at the current prices OMR11,509.2 million, compared to OMR12,949.2 million during the same period in 2015, according to the National Centre of Statistics and Information (NCSI).
Oil activities led the decline with a drop of 32.9 per cent, registering OMR3,134.1 million, compared with OMR4,671 .4 million by the end of the second quarter of 2015.
The share of crude oil in oil activities during the second quarter of this year was OMR2,518.9 million, with a drop of 38.4 per cent from the second quarter of 2015, in which the crude oil recorded OMR4,087 million.
The activities of natural gas increased at the end of the second quarter of 2016 by 5.3 per cent, registering OMR625.2 million, compared to OMR584.4 million by the end of the second quarter of 2015.
By the end of the second quarter, the total non-oil activities were OMR8,728.5 million, with a drop of 1.6 per cent, compared to the same quarter of 2015, which recorded OMR8,869.5 million.
The service activities topped the list of non-oil activities, with OMR5,989.6 million, dropping by 1.7 per cent from the same period of 2015, which recorded OMR6,094.3 million.
Sub-sectors of services activities recorded declines in wholesale and retail trade by 22.1 per cent, hotels and restaurants by 2.5 per cent, transport, storage and communications by 7.1 per cent.
Brokerage activities rose by 3.4 per cent, real estate, renting and commercial projects activities rose by 6.7 per cent, public administration and defence by 11 percent, and other services recorded a 0.1 per cent rise.
The industrial activities by the end of the second quarter of 2016 recorded OMR2,498.9 million, a decline of 2.6 per cent from the same quarter of 2015, which recorded OMR2,565.9 million.
Basic chemicals industry topped that decline with 31.9 per cent from the same period of the previous year, followed by the manufacturing sector by 18.7 per cent, other manufacturing sector declined by 9 per cent.