Remittances up by OMR55mn in 2018
According to the CBO’s Annual Report for the year 2018, worker remittances have increased from OMR3.774 billion in 2017 to OMR3.829 billion in 2018
MUSCAT: Remittances out of Oman in 2018 increased by OMR55 million compared to 2017, according to the Central Bank of Oman (CBO). This is despite a decrease in the number of expatriates living in Oman over the same period.
According to the CBO’s Annual Report for the year 2018, worker remittances increased from OMR3.774 billion in 2017 to OMR3.829 billion in 2018, an increase of OMR55 million in one year.
The increase in remittances came in spite of a decrease in the number of expatriate workers living in Oman, which the CBO attributed to the country’s Omanisation policy.
According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information, the number of expatriates living in Oman decreased from 2.055 million in 2017 to 2.022 million in 2018.
Despite the increase in remittances during 2018, worker remittances are on a downward slope in the context of the last five years. Worker remittances were OMR3.96 billion in 2014, OMR4.26 billion in 2015, OMR3.965 in 2016, OMR3.774 in 2017 and OMR3.829 billion in 2018. Furthermore, remittances are also being continually offset by increases in Oman’s trade surplus due to higher export earnings, and the percentage of remittances, when compared to these export earnings, has been declining since 2016.
Considering the number of expatriate workers living in Oman, remittances are an important part of Oman’s economy, especially considering its growth during 2018.
Tahir Al Amri, Executive President of CBO, wrote in the report, “The workers’ remittances, another major item under the current account, increased marginally, despite robust growth in the economy.” The report also described remittances as part of a “leakage of savings” from the economy.
Al Amri added: “The Omani economy witnessed robust nominal growth for the second year in a row during 2018, after coming out of a contractionary phase,” citing that nominal GDP had grown by 12 percent in 2018, with petroleum activities expanding by 37.1 percent and non-petroleum activities by 2.9 percent.