The decree added that the (Oman Future Fund) will allocate a percentage of its capital “to stimulate the bold investment system in small, medium and emerging companies registered in the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority.”
The agency stated that the new fund aims to enhance economic activity and encourage the private sector to enter into partnerships or finance feasible investment projects in the economic diversification sectors targeted by Oman Vision 2040.
It is noteworthy that the Sultanate of Oman achieved a surplus of about 1.144 billion riyals ($2.97 billion) by the end of 2022, benefiting from the increase in oil revenues, and the government intends to direct the additional financial revenues to accelerate the pace of stimulating economic growth, increase government support for fuel and basic commodities, reduce public debt and manage the lending portfolio, according to what I mentioned. The official news agency last Sunday.
Oman’s budget received a strong boost from the rise in oil prices last year, which encouraged credit rating agencies to improve the outlook for the Sultanate, especially after it paid off 1.1 billion Omani riyals ($2.86 billion) of loans in the first quarter of this year, thus reducing the volume of public debt. At the end of March, it amounted to 16.6 billion riyals, or 43.1 billion dollars.
During the current month, Moody’s Investors Service raised the credit rating of the Sultanate of Oman one notch to Ba2, attributing this to stronger financial indicators in light of unexpected revenues from hydrocarbons.
“The increase reflects improvements in Oman’s debt burden and debt sustainability indicators during 2022, mainly due to large unexpected gains from oil and gas revenues, which increase the country’s ability to withstand potential future shocks,” Moody’s said.
The agency maintained a positive outlook for the country.
Earlier in April, Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on the Sultanate of Oman from stable to positive and affirmed its rating at (BB).
The global rating agency said that the positive outlook for the Sultanate reflects the decline in government debt relative to the gross domestic product, with the rise in oil prices, the imposition of spending restrictions, and the reduction of external liquidity risks.
In turn, the rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, modified its outlook for the Sultanate of Oman to positive, from stable, at the beginning of last April, saying that the government was carrying out reforms in its budget and reduced the total debt ratio to 40 percent of GDP in 2022 from about 60 percent in 2021. .
The agency expected that the GDP growth of the Sultanate of Oman would reach about 2.5 percent annually, on average, between 2023 and 2026.
Oman launched a medium-term financial plan in 2020 to reduce public debt, diversify sources of revenue and stimulate economic growth.
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