Muscat: His Majesty the Sultan has issued a Royal Decree ratifying the State’s General Budget for Fiscal Year 2023.
It is expected that the deficit in the 2023 budget will be RO1.3 billion, 13 percent of total revenues and three percent of GDP.
The public spending for the fiscal year 2023 has been estimated at about RO11.350 billion, a decrease of 6.4 percent compared to public spending approved in the 2022 budget.
Preliminary results indicate that the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2022 recorded an increase in revenues by 34.5 percent, to reach about RO14.234 billion, compared to what was approved at the beginning of the same year.
The results show that the 2022 budget achieved a financial surplus of about RO1.146 billion, so the government did not resort to borrowing and withdrawing from reserves to finance the deficit estimated at about RO1. 550 billion as approved in the budget.
The results confirm that this increase is mainly due to the increase in average achieved oil prices to about $94 per barrel, compared to the approved price per barrel in the budget of 50 US dollars per barrel, and the increase in oil revenues by 66 percent and gas revenues by 29 percent.
The total approved revenues in the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2023 is estimated at RO10.50 billion, down 5 percent from what was approved in the 2022 budget.
The additional financial revenues enable the government to pay off part of the public indebtedness and manage the lending portfolio, which led to reducing the total volume of public debt from RO20.8 billion at the end of 2021 to RO 17.7 billion in 2022.
The increase in public revenues contributed to reducing the public debt service from RO1.294 billion approved at the beginning of 2022 to about RO1. 140 billion by the end of the same year.
The 2022 budget achieves additional financial revenues as a result of the rise in global oil prices, which contributed to accelerating economic recovery and improving financial and economic indicators by directing these revenues to manage the lending portfolio, reducing public debt, enhancing social spending, and stimulating economic growth.
The results show that public spending in 2022 recorded an increase of 7.9 percent to reach about RO13.88 billion, compared to the approved expenditure in the budget of RO12.130 billion.
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