MUSCAT, 24 November 2003 — Oman’s external debt is expected to fall to 1.1 billion rials ($2.86 billion) by the end of 2003, according to the National Economy Minister.
“It’s remarkable that Oman’s debt declined from 1.5 billion rials in 2000 to 1.2 billion rials in 2002,”Ahmed ibn Abdulnabi Macki told Times of Oman in an interview published today. He said Oman’s external debt is expected to fall further to 1.1 billion rials by 2003, declining by 20 percent (300 million rials) to 1.2 billion rials last year from 1.5 billion rials in 2000
“Due to our practical and prudent policy, choices to allocate fiscal surplus to debt reduction and accumulation of foreign assets, our debt has been brought down to manageable levels, which is within the recognized and accepted international levels”, explained Macki, who is also deputy chairman of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resource Council. He said as percentage of GDP, the country’s external debt fell from 20 percent in 2000 to 16 percent in 2002 and is expected to fall to about 14 percent by 2003. “In fact, the government has devoted surpluses since 1999 to accumulating foreign assets and to lowering debt, which declined from 32.3 percent of GDP in 1998 to 16 percent in 2002.”
Macki said the GDP went up from 104.7 million rials in 1970 to 7.8 billion rials by 2002 — almost 75-fold, while the GDP per capita climbed from 461 rials in 1970 to 3,077 rials in 2002 — seven-fold.
