Oman logs drastic decline in budget deficit

Muscat: Oman government’s budget deficit fell by a significant 19.4 per cent to OMR1,544.7 million in the January to September period of 2019, according to the Sultanate’s official data keeper.
The budget deficit for the same period of 2018 stood at OMR1,916.6 million, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). The total revenue of Oman government surged 2.5 per cent to OMR7,949.6 million for the first nine months of 2019, over the same period of the previous year due to recovery in oil prices.
The net oil revenue of Oman government fell by 3.3 per cent to OMR4,603.6 at the end of September 2019, from OMR4,761.5 million for the same period of the previous year, the report added.
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Revenue from natural gas fell 5.1 per cent to OMR1,310.5 million, while customs duty and corporate income tax contributed OMR162.6 million and OMR580.2 million, respectively, during the period. In addition, capital revenue rose to OMR61.7 million during the nine months of 2019, falling 47.3 per cent over the same period of 2018.
Meanwhile, total public expenditure fell by 1.8 per cent to OMR9,494.3 million till September 2019. This is against an expenditure of OMR9,670.7 million for the same period of 2018. Of this, the current expenditure rose by 0.4 per cent to OMR6,652.4 million, while investment expenditure fell by 8.4 per cent to OMR1,749.5 million till September 2019.
The participation and support dropped by 5.4 per cent to OMR528.9 million end of September 2019 from OMR559.1 million for the same period of 2018.
Oman government’s total public expenditure in 2018 stood at OMR13,599.2 million, with a total revenue of OMR10,949.6 million, leaving a deficit of OMR2,649.6 million.