Oman budget deficit nearly halves in Jan-May as oil income balloons | Reuters

Oman budget deficit nearly halves in Jan-May as oil income balloons | Reuters:

Oman’s state budget deficit nearly halved in the first five months of this year as higher oil prices boosted export revenues sharply and a corporate tax hike took effect, figures released by the official statistics agency showed on Monday.

The government’s deficit in January-May shrank to 1.10 billion rials ($2.86 billion) from 2.04 billion rials a year earlier.

Oman’s financial position is among the weakest of the wealthy Gulf oil exporters, so the data may reassure investors in its debt. The International Monetary Fund has predicted it will run a fiscal deficit of 5.7 percent of gross domestic product this year, down from 11.4 percent in 2017.