MUSCAT: Oman posted a budget deficit of OR2.68 billion ($6.97 billion) in the first eight months of this year, provisional Finance Ministry data showed.
This was in comparison to the OR205.7 million surplus reported a year earlier because of lower oil export prices.
The budget deficit has also grown since the first half of 2015 when Oman posted a budget deficit of OR1.92 billion.
Oman’s 2015 budget plan envisages government expenditure of OR14.1 billion and a deficit of OR2.5 billion, assuming an average oil price of $75 per barrel, said the data which was cited by Reuters.
The plunge of crude prices is a serious blow to Oman, which lacks the ample fiscal and hydrocarbon reserves of its wealthier Gulf neighbours.
In April, the World Bank estimated the decline in crude prices could cost the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman and Bahrain – $215 billion, or 14 percent of their combined gross domestic product this year.
Consequently, the region may record a fiscal deficit for the first time in four years, it said.
