During the 8th five-year development plan, the Omani economy achieved 4% growth in the current price despite the decline of oil prices since mid-2014, Oman News Agency (ONA) reported on Saturday.

The statistics prepared by Oman news Agency (ONA) based on a number of bulletins issued by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) pointed out that during the 8th five-year plan, the GDP at the current prices grew by 4% while the estimated growth rate was set at 6%. The growth rate was negatively affected by the recent oil price drop.

The statistical data pointed out that during the past three years, the inflation rate settled at around 1%. The Omani government sought to increase per capital of GDP, therefore it has increased public expenditure from RO33.8 billion in the 7th five-year plan to RO67.1 billion in the 8th five-year plan.

Over the past five years, the GDP at the current prices witnessed variable growth rates ; the highest in 2014 with RO31.4 billion and the lowest in 2011 with RO26.7 billion. The public expenditure also grew to RO29.3 billion in 2012 and RO30 billion in 2013.

As per the latest bulletin published by NCSI (August 2016), last year's GDP at the current prices stood at RO26.8 billion. In terms of activity, the oil activities GDP at the current price grew by 2.6% against 8.7 % for non-oil activities. 

On the contrary, the GDP for non-oil activities during the past five years did not register any decline. Rather, it grew by 11.7% from RO14.3 in 2011 to RO16 billion in 2012. It continued its growth to RO17.2 billion in 2013, RO18.9 billion in 2014 and then to RO19.1 billion in 2015.

Source : QNA