The economy of Oman grew 2 percent in the third quarter of 2025, as backed by robust growth in non-oil activities, while bank lending continued to increase more than deposits, witnessing improving domestic demand.
Preliminary data issued by the National Centre of Statistics and Information indicated that the gross domestic product at constant prices increased to approximately 9.91 billion Omani rials ($26 billion) in the three months through September, surged from 9.71 billion rials in the previous year.
Oman News Agency reported that the growth was primarily due to the non-oil industries, with the value added growing by 2 percent to over 7.3 billion rials.
This follows Fitch Ratings recently boosting the sovereign credit rating of the Sultanate to investment grade of BBB-, with a forecasted growth in GDP of approximately 4 percent by 2025 due to healthy growth in the non-oil sector.
Therefore, the S&P Global Ratings forecasts the growth of steady real GDP at approximately 2 percent annually through 2028 due to the current economic diversification and acceleration of the services sector.
The ONA report indicated, “By economic activity, construction activities grew 1.3 percent to around 1.035 billion rials, while wholesale and retail trade increased 1.3 percent to 830.5 million rials. Public administration and defense rose 1.5 percent, reaching 932.5 million rials in Q3 2025.”
The oil sector operations improved by 1.9 percent to almost 3.07 billion rials compared to slightly above 3.01 billion rials during the same period in 2024. The crude oil production increased by 2 percent to over 2.55 billion rials, and natural gas activities increased by 1.6 percent to 512.8 million rials, as compared to 504.7 million rials last year.
The overall credit facilities provided by the conventional commercial banks in the Sultanate increased 8.5 percent by November, and lending to the private sector grew 5.8 percent to 21.9 billion rials.
ONA stated in another report, “In terms of investment, total holdings of conventional commercial banks in securities grew 7.4 percent, reaching approximately 6.4 billion rials by the end of November 2025.”
Under this classification, the government development bonds investments increased 9.5 percent year-on-year to 2.2 billion rials, and those in foreign securities fell 4.4 percent to 2.3 billion rials.
On the liabilities side, the total deposits of the conventional commercial banks went up 6.3 percent to reach 26.4 billion rials by the end of November. Government deposits increased 7.6 percent, and deposits of the institutions of the public sector were down by 25.6 percent to approximately 5.8 billion rials and 1.9 billion rials, respectively.
The private sector deposits increased 9.5 percent to 17.8 billion rials in November, which represents 67.2 percent of the total deposits in the conventional commercial banks.
