Oman’s economy bounces back in 2021 with over 16% growth in nominal GDP
Muscat – Oman’s nominal GDP – gross domestic product at current market prices – has greatly surpassed its pre-pandemic level after growing rapidly in 2021, official data released on Tuesday showed.
Supported by strong recovery in oil prices and government’s economic stimulus measures, the sultanate’s nominal GDP grew at a solid pace of 16.1 per cent during 2021 in another sign that the economy is on a sustained recovery path from the pandemic-induced recession.
Oman’s nominal GDP surged to over RO33bn in 2021 compared with RO28.442bn in 2020 and RO29.275bn in 2019, according to data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The economy was hit by a dual shock of the pandemic and a collapse in oil prices in 2020.
The NCSI data now shows that Oman’s economic recovery is broad-based with all major sectors – oil and gas, industry, services, and agriculture and fisheries – recording robust growth rates during 2021.
With increased production and improved prices of oil and gas, Oman’s hydrocarbon GDP jumped by 38.5 per cent to RO10.547bn in 2021 from RO7.617bn in the previous year.
On the back of higher crude prices, the value of oil output surged by more than 46.6 per cent to RO8.998bn last year against RO6.139bn in 2020, while the value of natural gas output increased 4.8 per cent to RO1.549bn.
Non-oil GDP up 8.4%
The sultanate’s non-oil nominal GDP grew by 8.4 per cent to reach RO24.044bn in 2021 from RO22.178bn recorded in the previous year. Among non-oil sectors, industrial sector output grew by 13.6 per cent to RO6.687bn, while the services sector grew by 6.5 per cent to RO16.571bn.
Within the industrial sector, manufacturing bounced back with 40.8 per cent growth to RO3.195bn in 2021 from RO2.268bn in the previous year, while the mining and quarrying sector grew by 4.3 per cent to RO230mn worth of output in 2021.
Construction sector activities, however, remained 6.8 per cent lower at approximately RO2.444bn in 2021 against the corresponding period of 2020.
Within the services sector, wholesale and retail trade recorded 15.5 per cent growth to reach RO2.847bn in 2021 from RO2.464bn in the previous year.
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