Muscat – The average household in Oman spends RO797.64 a month, and almost 60% of that goes on three things –  housing, food and transport – according to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels category forms the largest expense at RO184.91 a month – or 23% – of an average household’s budget in Oman. Food and non-alcoholic beverages come next at RO170.98 (21%), followed by transport at RO114.82 (14%).

Together, these three essentials total about RO471 a month, roughly 59% of all spending.

The picture is different between Omani and expatriate households, the survey results showed.

Expatriate households spend RO193.3 a month on housing and utilities, a striking 48% of their budget, while Omani households spend RO179.4, or 16.9% of total monthly spending.

Food reverses the pattern. Omani households spend RO240.2 a month, about 3.6 times the RO66.29 spent by expatriate households. In transport the gap is wider still: RO173.1 against RO26.68, about 6.5 times higher.

Taken together, the three essentials account for about 71% of the average expatriate household’s budget, against about 56% for Omani households. Omani households also spend far more overall, at RO1,058.7 a month compared to RO402.48 by expat households.

Household size helps explain part of the gap. Omani households average 6.9 members, compared to 4.2 in expatriate households. Spread across members, Omani households spend about RO153 per person a month, against about RO96 for expatriates.

After the big three spending categories, the next largest items are furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance at RO71.15 (9%), and transfer payments at RO69.95 (also 9%). With these added, five categories account for about 77% of the monthly budget. Personal care, miscellaneous goods and services average RO42.85 (5%), and clothing and footwear RO38.87 (5%).

Spending on leisure and services is modest. Households spend RO29.45 a month on information and communication (4%), RO26.63 on recreation, sport and culture (3%), and RO24 on restaurants and accommodation services (3%).

The survey results give a clear picture of what drives household demand: shelter, food and mobility come first, and everything else is squeezed into the remaining 40%. These are averages, so individual families, whose size and income levels differ, may spend very differently.