Oman budget surplus widens to $464m
Muscat, September 8, 2013
Oman's year-to-date government budget surplus widened to 178.5 million rials ($463.6 million) at the end of July from 95.3 million rials in the first six months of 2013, data from the National Center for Statistics and Information showed on Sunday.
However, the January-July surplus was sharply down from a surplus of 2.0 billion rials in the same period of 2012.
Analysts polled by Reuters in April forecast the non-Opec oil exporter would post a fiscal surplus of 3.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2013.
Oman based its 2013 budget on a projected oil price of $85 per barrel, expected expenditure of 12.9 billion rials and a deficit of 1.7 billion rials. - Reuters