While Oman’s pile of external debt is rising fast in the face of lower oil prices, raising concerns about the sustainability of its currency peg, the country has enough finance to maintain the peg in 2018, said Bloomberg Economics in a new analysis.

Ziad Daoud, chief Middle East economist, Bloomberg Economics added that Oman can secure enough funding to cover its external finance needs, which Bloomberg Economics estimates is at $11.5 billion, made up of $10 billion current account deficit and $1.5 billion of debt maturing this year.

The recent issuance of $6.5 billion international bonds means the remainder $5 billion can be covered through one of four means:

•    Further debt issuance in international markets
•    Using central bank reserves
•    Using the assets of sovereign wealth funds
•    Support from the rest of the Gulf

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