GDP sees a fall of 14.2 per cent

Services activities value increased to RO 3.2 billion the end of March, compared to RO 3 billion at the end of March in 2014, due to increase in the value added of other services activities - which include health, education and others - by 11.9 per cent, financial intermediation by 11.2 per cent, transport, storage and communication by 9 per cent, real estate activities and business projects activities by 5.9 per cent, hotels and restaurants activities by 4.4 per cent, wholesale and retail trade activities by 2.1 per cent, and public administration activities and defence by 1.1 per cent.

Oil activities value declined by 36.8 per cent at the end of March compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, declining from RO 3.8 billion at the end of March 2014 to RO 2.4 billion at the end of March 2015.

This is attributed mainly to the decrease in the value added of crude oil by 40.9 per cent due to the fall in average oil prices by 41.5 per cent during the period. By comparison, the value added of natural gas increased at the end of March by 16.3 compared to the corresponding period of 2014.

The value added of industrial activities declined by 2.4 per cent at the end of March, compared to the same period of the previous year due to the decline in the value added of basic chemical industry 18.2 per cent and construction by 3.1 per cent. By comparison, other manufacturing industries value added increased by 20.9 per cent, mining and quarrying by 10 per cent and electricity and water supplies by 9.2 per cent during the period under reference.

Reviewing the first quarter, NCSI says the total deposits in commercial banks increased by 4.6 per cent to reach RO 17.9 billion against RO 17.2 billion during Q1, 2014, piggybacking on a 12.1 per cent growth in private sector deposits. However, this was considerably offset by a 6.9 per cent fall in deposits in the government sector which included ministries, government corporations and public enterprises.

On the other hand, a significant increase in credit awarded to both the public and private sectors pushed up first quarter’s total credit by as much as 11.6 per cent to reach RO 17.4 billion as against prior year’s RO 15.6 billion during the same period. Public sector credit swelled to 15.3 per cent, while private sector credit went up to 11.1 per cent.

Interestingly enough, personal loans represented 39 per cent of the total loans during Q1 of 2015, reaching RO 6.8 billion and marking a rise of 9.5 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 2014. At the same time average interest rate on total credit declined by 5.5 per cent in the quarter compared to 2014, while real interest rate (average interest rate minus inflation rate) dropped to 3.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the effective exchange rate index of Omani rial increased by 9.3 per cent to 104.6 points from 95.7 points during first quarter of the previous year. Muscat Securities Market index fell by 9.03 per cent during Q1, 2015 compared to Q1, 2014 to reach 6,238 points. Trade value dropped by 40.5 per cent during Q1 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2014 dropping from RO 691.3 million in 2014 to RO 411.36 million in 2015. — ONA