Tuesday 07 / January / 2025
Muscat: Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the Sultanate for the third quarter of 2020 crossed OMR15.6 billion, an increase of 11.7 per cent compared to the same time for the previous year.
The total volume of FDI to the country came to OMR15,658.2 million, for the 9-months of 2020, compared to OMR14,017.2 million for this period in 2019, while foreign investment inflows amounted to OMR1.644 billion, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
In terms of volumes of FDIs, the UK ranked first, with OMR7.92 billion up from OMR7,264.4 million, followed by the United States with OMR1,847.9 million in the third quarter of 2020, compared to OMR1,716.7 million for the corresponding period last year.
The United Arab Emirates also has significant foreign investment in the Sultanate at OMR1,267.7 million, compared to OMR1,173.7 million for the third quarter of 2019. Kuwait came fourth with OMR933.2 million in FDIs for the third quarter of 2020, in comparison to OMR841.3 million for the same timeframe in 2019.
Bahrain’s investments in Oman rose from OMR441.3 million in the third quarter of 2019 to OMR 395.4 million in the third quarter of 2020. China’s FDI values for the first 9 months of 2020 were OMR848.9 million, up from OMR75.0 million for this period in 2019, while Qatar’s investments totalled OMR410.6 million, rising from OMR350.4 million.
The FDI values from the Netherlands added up to OMR337.4 million, a steady increase from the OMR304.7 million that was invested in the country in the first nine months of 2019.
Investments from India came to OMR318.3 million, increasing from OMR321.3 million.
Investments from Switzerland represented another OMR280.1 million, an increase from the third quarter of last year, which was OMR260.4 million.
Investments from other countries around the world, for the first 9 months of 2020 accumulated to a total of OMR1,048.5 million, down from OMR1,311.0 million for the same period in 2019.
The maximum amount of foreign investment went into the oil and gas sector (OMR10.06 billion, up from OMR9.25 billion), followed by the manufacturing sector, which saw OMR1.55 billion in investment, up from OMR1.63 billion.
In the financial sector, Oman received OMR1.47 billion in investment, the same as was invested in this field for the corresponding period last year.
Real estate activities saw an investment of OMR1.14 billion, up from OMR763.8 million for the first nine months of 2019.
Other economic activities in Oman saw a total investment of OMR1.42 billion, up from OMR1,007.0 million for the first quarter of 2019.
