Muscat - A major recovery in crude prices this year boosted Oman’s oil revenues and reduced the country’s fiscal deficit by 46.2 per cent to RO1.09bn in the first five months of 2018. The sultanate’s fiscal deficit stood at RO2.03bn for the first five months of 2017.

Total government revenues rose 23.2 per cent to RO4.09bn during January - May period of 2018 over the same period of last year, according to the statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) as reported by Oman News Agency on Saturday.

As a result of growth in oil prices, the sultanate’s net oil revenue surged 34.8 per cent to RO2.38bn during the first five months of 2018 against RO1.76bn for the same period of last year.

Government’s revenues from natural gas grew 17.4 per cent to RO682.6mn, while customs duty and corporate income tax contributed RO88.5mn and RO352.3mn during the five months period, respectively.

Total government expenditure increased 6.1 per cent to RO4.83bn for the first five months between January and May 2018. This was against an expenditure of RO4.55bn for the same period of last year, the NCSI report added.

Of the total expenditure, current expenditure rose 12.5 per cent to RO3.57bn, while investment expenditure grew 1.1 per cent to RO1.07bn in the first five months of 2018, the statistics showed.

The expenditure for participation and support by the government fell 40.6 per cent during the first five months of this year at RO189.6mn from RO319.2mn for the same period of 2017.

© Apex Press and Publishing Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

Disclaimer: The content of this article is syndicated or provided to this website from an external third party provider. We are not responsible for, and do not control, such external websites, entities, applications or media publishers. The body of the text is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis and has not been edited in any way. Neither we nor our affiliates guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions expressed in this article. Read our full disclaimer policy here.