Oman

Oman’s banking sector appears to have ridden out the recent oil price and economic downturn largely unscathed. While concerns over liquidity arose in the wake of the oil price slump given the government’s status as an important depositor, the situation improved in 2017 as the Omani state borrowed from abroad to avoid withdrawing funds or...

A May 2017 survey published by Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information found that 56% of Oman’s residents have accounts or deposits with banks operating in the sultanate, and this figure grows to 68% when only Omani citizens are counted. Omanis benefit from good access to financial infrastructure. The number of bank branches...

The number of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) operating in the GCC has grown significantly in the last decade. The value of these SWFs – created to invest and manage the huge sums flowing into the region from hydrocarbons sales – stood at $2.9trn in December 2017, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI), or 38.3% of the global...

From the late 1990s until 2014 Oman’s fiscal balance had consistently remained in positive territory, according to IMF figures, with the sole exception of a small deficit of 0.3% of GDP registered in 2009. However, amid a decline in international oil prices towards the end of 2014, public finances moved into the red for the year, to the tune...