By Manal Abdel Fattah
The credit ratings issued by reliable credit rating agencies on the development of the Omani economy confirm the effectiveness of the plans, programs and economic steps taken by the Sultanate of Oman in the past few years, most notably the financial rescue plan (2020-2024), which played a major and vital role in the state of the Omani economy.
Stability in all aspects and levels, in addition to working according to an integrated, interconnected system that has weathered global transformations and intended for the Sultanate of Oman to be an attractive environment for local, regional and global investment.
Based on diplomatic relations, the Sultanate always seeks to strengthen its ties with various countries of the world, and make it a starting point for establishing economic relations in which interests are exchanged, in addition to the set of incentives it offers to investors, and its keenness to facilitate procedures.
Perhaps the issuance by Standard & Poor’s of its first credit rating report on the Sultanate of Oman for the year 2024 AD, in which it modified the future outlook from stable to positive while fixing the credit rating level at (BB+), confirms that the Omani economy is moving in the right direction, as it attributed The highly reliable global agency expects continuous improvement in the state’s public financial performance indicators, achieving financial surpluses in addition to government efforts to reduce net public debt, stressing that what has been achieved is due to government measures taken to control public spending and control its levels, and taking other measures to increase non-profit revenues.
Oil, in addition to the positive results from the restructuring of government companies, and other successful steps mentioned by the credit agency in its report.
The agency’s amendment of its outlook from stable to positive is based on its expectation that the average financial surplus in the state’s general budget will reach about (2.6) percent of the gross domestic product during the year 2023 AD, and about (1.2) percent during the period extending from 2024 to 2027 AD, in addition to achieving a surplus Financial in the external (current) account by about (2) percent in 2023 AD, and an average of (1.2) percent during the years 2024-2027 AD, which indicates a decrease in the public debt rate from (36) percent in 2023 to reach about (31) percent.
In 2027 AD, it is a huge shift that will contribute to reducing the money spent on debt service, and paying the difference as development and investment expenses that constitute a recovery for the Omani market.
I believe that there are other credit agencies that will quickly raise their rating for the Sultanate of Oman in the coming days, given the positive steps that have been achieved in all financial, legislative and incentive aspects, and the launch to implement the “Oman 2040” vision, in addition to the government’s continued implementation of its measures aimed at strengthening the financial position and improving its indicators.
In addition to the economic measures followed that contribute to enhancing economic growth, and the continued reduction of the state’s public debt will lead to an improvement in the credit rating, and then move the national economy towards broader horizons that work to achieve the aspirations and ambitions of the Omani people.
