Oman's budget deficit falls by 5.6%

Muscat: Oman’s budget deficit fell 5.6 per cent to OMR1.92 billion till the end of October 2019. The budget deficit for the same period of 2018 was at OMR2.04 billion, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total revenue of the Oman government fell 1.1 per cent to OMR8,602.2 million for the first 10 months of 2019, over the same period of the previous year.
The net oil revenue of the Oman government fell 7.6 per cent to OMR4,971.3 million at the end of October 2019, from OMR5,377.3 million for the same period of the previous year, the report added. Revenue from natural gas dropped 8.9 per cent to OMR1,436.2 million, while customs duty and corporate income tax contributed OMR182.5 million and OMR593 million, respectively, during the period.
In addition, capital revenue fell to OMR62.9 million during the 10 months of 2019, falling 46.9 per cent over the same period of 2018.
As far as expenditures are concerned, total public expenditure fell 1.9 per cent to OMR10,531.6 million till October 2019. This is against an expenditure of OMR10,737.8 million for the same period of 2018. Of this, current expenditure rose by 0.4 per cent to OMR7,350.3 million, while investment expenditure fell by 5.8 per cent to OMR1,987.3 million till October 2019.
The participation and support dropped by 16.3 per cent to OMR560.5 million at the end of October 2019 from OMR669.6 million for the same period of 2018.
Oman government’s total public expenditure in 2018 stood at OMR13,599.2 million, with total revenue of OMR10,949.6 million, leaving a deficit of OMR2,649.6 million.