MUSCAT: The Sultanate’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices increased 4.6 per cent during 2014, as compared to the 2.4 percent growth registered the previous year.
While the nominal GDP emanating from the hydrocarbon sector registered a marginal decline of 2.4 percent, that from non-hydrocarbon activities witnessed a growth of 10.1 percent during the year, according to the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) preliminary data on national accounts, received by e-mail.
The balance of payments situation remained comfortable with both current account and overall position in surplus. The annual inflation rate measured by the movement in the average CPI for the Sultanate stood at 0.60 percent from January to March 2015 over the corresponding period in 2014.
Total assets of commercial banks rose 9.3 percent to OMR26.2 billion in March 2015 from OMR24.0 billion a year ago. Of the total assets, credit disbursement was 66.4 per cent and rose 11.6 percent as at the end of March 2015 to OMR17.4 billion.
Credit to the private sector increased by 11.1 percent during the period to reach OMR15.1 billion at the end of March 2015. Of the total credit to the private sector by the end March 2015, the share of the non-financial corporate sector stood at 47.5 percent, closely followed by the household sector (mainly under personal loans) at 45.1 percent, financial corporations at 5.1 per cent and other sectors the remaining 2.3 percent.
The overall investment of commercial banks in securities marginally declined by 0.5 percent to OMR3.36 billion as at the end of March 2015 from OMR3.38 billion a year ago.
