Oman’s GDP at current prices increased by 7.4% at the end of Q1 2023, according to the preliminary data issued by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The NCSI report revealed that Oman’s GDP at current prices stood at 10.4 billion riyals ($27 billion) in Q1 2023, up from 9.7 billion riyals ($25.1 billion) in the corresponding period last year.
The growth in GDP was led by the growth of the non-oil sector, which expanded by 6.7%, reaching 7.2 billion riyals ($18.7 billion) at the end of Q1 2023, compared to 6.5 billion riyals ($17 billion) during the same period in 2022.
This increase was also supported by the growth of oil activities with 6.1% at the end of Q1 2023, amounting to 3.585 billion riyals ($9.2 billion), compared to 3.379 billion riyals ($8.7 billion) at the end of Q1 2022.
Crude oil activities grew by 6%, recording 3.8 billion riyals ($996.7 million), while natural gas activities increased by 6.5%, recording 500.6 billion riyals ($1.2 billion).
The total industrial activities recorded a growth of 4.6%, reaching 1.9 billion riyals ($4.9 billion).
The activities in agriculture, forestry, and fishing recorded a growth of 8.4% from 215.7 million riyals ($558.5 million) to 233.900 million riyals ($605.7 million).
Meanwhile, the service activities recorded a growth of 7.4%, from 4.533 billion riyals ($11.7 billion) to 4.869 billion riyals ($12.6 billion).
Moreover, the total credit granted by banks in Oman increased by 4.9% according to an analysis of the activities of traditional commercial banks from April 2022-April 2023.
The report issued by the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) showed that credit granted to the private sector increased by 4.9%, to reach 24.4 billion riyals ($63.1 billion) at the end of April 2023.
With regard to the investment item, the total investment of conventional commercial banks in securities witnessed a sharp decline of 15.4%, reaching about 4.4 billion riyals ($11.3 billion) at the end of April 2023.
Investments in foreign securities increased by 8.5% to reach 900 million riyals ($2.3 billion) at the end of April 2023.
On the liabilities side, total deposits with conventional commercial banks increased by 4.1% to reach 22.2 billion riyals ($57.4 billion) at the end of April 2023.
Within the total deposits, government deposits with commercial banks increased by 10% to about 5.5 billion ($14.2 billion), as well as deposits of public sector institutions which increased by 10% to about 1.5 billion riyals ($3.8 billion) during the same period.
Private sector deposits increased by 2.2% to reach 14.7 billion riyals ($38 billion) in April 2023, constituting 66.5% of total deposits with conventional commercial banks.
