8.3% GDP growth @ half time

Natural gas fires Oman economic growth
Reuters on Sunday, 04 November 2007

Oman's economy grew 8.3% at current prices in the first half of the year driven by expansion in natural gas production and non-oil sectors such as industry, the official Oman News Agency (ONA) said.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the six months ended June 30 was 7.266 billion rials ($18.88 billion), up 8.3% from the same period a year earlier, ONA reported on Friday, without giving a comparative figure.

The value of crude oil and gas output rose 0.2% to 3.41 billion rials in the first half, the agency said, citing official statistics.

Growth in the first half was mainly due to a 30.1% gain in the contribution of natural gas to 262.3 million rials, ONA said. That compared with 200.4 million rials in the first half of 2006.

The value of non-oil sector output rose 16.9% in the six months to 3.98 billion rials, while the value of industrial sector output grew 17.9% to 971.3 million rials, ONA added.

Analysts' forecasts were for Oman's economy to grow 38.6% in nominal terms and 5.9% in real terms in 2007, according to a Reuters poll conducted last December.