Muscat: The Ministry of Economy has said that financial and economic indicators for 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 show that Oman’s economy has the ability to deal with problems and set itself up to grow and be competitive.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy, Dr. Nasser Rashid Al Ma’awali, said that the current economic indicators are important wins for Oman’s economy and will have a positive effect on the way the economy grows.
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In a press release, Al Ma’awali said that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices grew by 30% in 2022 to hit OMR 44,089.5 million. This was a 4.3 percent growth rate at constant prices, compared to a 3.1 percent growth rate in 2021.
He also said that the Omani economy will make a short-term gain of about OMR 44 billion by 2022, which shows how strong the turnaround is.
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He said that oil and gas production would grow by 9.6% and 3.7%, respectively, in 2022 compared to 2021, which was what caused this boom. He said that this growth is also due to government programmes that aim to get production areas going, especially those related to economic diversification.
He talked about the direct increase in added value, especially for activities that don’t involve oil, of 1.6% to hit OMR24.70 billion in 2022. He said that the growth in the mining industry is 10.5%, the growth in the transport and storage industry is 16.3%, and the growth in the businesses that change things is about 17%.
Even though inflation rates went up from about 1.5 percent in 2021 to about 2.8 percent in 2022, Al Ma’awali stressed that they are still within the range of rates that are acceptable around the world.
In response to a question about the general budget’s surplus, the undersecretary said that the state’s general budget had a surplus of OMR 1.18 billion in 2022. He pointed out that the government’s debt had gone down to 43 percent of GDP by the end of 2022. This was due to policies that used extra money to pay down debt and make the country’s finances more stable.
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He talked about how important it was that the trade balance surplus was growing because commodity exports were going up and the value of foreign direct investments was going up. He said that the trade balance surplus would hit about OMR 18.14 billion by the end of the third quarter of 2022.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy thought that the current indicators and future forecasts showed that things were going well. The main goal is to keep inflation within safe limits, between 2% and 3% through 2023, he said.
He said that the stability of oil prices around the world is at the limits of what can be expected locally, so it is hoped that the country’s finances will continue to get better as earnings, especially from oil, go up. This would increase the surplus in the general budget.
Al Ma’awali came to the conclusion that the International Monetary Fund thought the Omani economy would grow by 4.1% in 2023.