Oman’s inflation reaches 1.02 percent in Jan.-Oct.

14 Dec 2014

(MENAFN) According to the Central Bank of Oman (CBO), the sultanate’s annual inflation rate stood at 1.02 per cent during the January-October period of 2014, while its gross domestic product (GDP) grew to 3.7 percent in the first half of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013, Times of Oman reported.

The CBO said that its figures show that the petroleum sector component of the GDP pointed to a minor decline of 0.4 percent, mostly due to the decline in oil imports as well as the decline in oil prices, while the non-petroleum sector grew by 7.3 per cent during January-June 2014.

Meanwhile, the value of the total assets of commercial banks increased by 9.7 percent to USD63.46 billion in October 2014 compared with USD57.76 billion last year, while the combined value of deposits held with commercial banks registered a significant increase of 11.9 percent to USD44.29 billion in October 2014 compared with USD39.63 billion a year ago.

The figures also showed that government deposits increased by 14.2 percent to USD13.21 billion, while deposits of public enterprises declined by 9.2 percent to USD2.30 billion during the same period, and that the private sector deposits, which constituted 63.6 per cent of total deposits, increased by 14.3 percent to USD28.23 billion in October 2014 from USD24.61 billion during the same period in 2013.