Foreign direct investment in Oman passes 27 billion OMR
The volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Oman at the end of 2022 reached 27,135 billion Omani riyals (OMR), according to preliminary data issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The total was up 8.2% compared with 2021's volume of 25,089 billion OMR and made up 4.8% of Gross Domestic Product.
FDI constituted 75.9% of total foreign investment at the end of 2022. Foreign investment in financial derivatives amounted to 52.2 million OMR with an inflow of 1.3 million OMR. Other foreign investment reached 5,642 million OMR with inflows of 343 million OMR.
The oil and gas sectors attracted 56.4% of foreign investment with a value of 15,321 million OMR compared to 5,559 million OMR for financial brokerage activity, 2,373 million OMR for converting industries and 1,618 million OMR for transport, storage and communications fields.
Total foreign investment in real estate, leasing and commercial projects reached 1,113 million OMR while foreign investment in other activities reached 1,151 million OMR.
The most popular FDI sectors were oil and gas (71.1%), converting industries (9.1%), financial brokerage (8.9%), real estate, leasing and commercial activities (4.9%). Other activities attracted 6%.
The United Kingdom topped the list countries with FDI in Oman (9,622 billion OMR) followed by the United States (3,684 billion OMR) and China (1,040 billion OMR).
The other countries in the top ten were the United Arab Emirates (915 million OMR), Kuwait (797 million OMR ), Qatar (594 million OMR), Bahrain (488 million OMR), the Netherlands (364 million OMR), India (321 million OMR) and Switzerland (177 million OMR).
Statistics indicate that Omani investment abroad at the end of 2022 reached 5,384 billion OMR compared to 6,020 billion OMR at the end of 2021, a drop of 10.6%.
The United Arab Emirates topped the list of countries that attracted direct Omani investment with a total of 960 million OMR followed by Saudi Arabia (129 million OMR).
Omani direct investment in other countries included the United Kingdom (93 million OMR), Kuwait (32 million OMR), Egypt (20 million OMR), India (9 million OMR) and Bahrain (2 million OMR).
Among those investments were 2.208 billion OMR for direct investments, 1.424 billion OMR for portfolio investments and 3 million OMR in financial derivatives. Other investments amounted to 1.749 billion OMR.
The manufacturing sector topped Oman's investments abroad at 584 million OMR followed by the financial intermediation sector at 226 million OMR, real estate, leasing and commercial project activities at 16 million OMR and the oil and gas sector with a value of 5.3 million OMR. Other activities amounted to 1.375 billion OMR.