S&P Global Ratings upgraded Oman’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit rating to ‘BB-’ from ‘B+’, citing higher oil prices, rising hydrocarbon production and the government’s fiscal reform programme.
A BB rating is a speculative grading that implies the issuer is less vulnerable in the near term.
The credit rating agency also revised the Gulf country's outlook to stable, it said on Sunday.
“The stable outlook balances the significant improvement in the government’s balance sheet over the next three years against higher medium-term fiscal pressure,” S&P said.
Oman, a relatively small crude producer compared to its Gulf neighbours, is more sensitive to oil price swings and was hit hard by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse in crude prices in 2020.
However, higher oil prices in 2021, along with fiscal reforms, helped to narrow government deficits.
Oman’s budget deficit reached an estimated 1.2 billion Omani rials ($3.1bn), or 3.8 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), last year.
Government net debt will narrow to 12 per cent of GDP in 2025, a sharp improvement from a previous forecast of above 30 per cent, S&P said.
“Following high fiscal and external pressures since 2015 that culminated in 2020 with the double shock from the Covid-19 pandemic and sharp fall in oil prices, we now expect Oman to benefit from higher oil prices and the government’s ongoing reforms,” the rating agency said.
Over the next three years, we expect the non-oil sector to be the leading driver of growth
S&P Global
“The Omani government has also outlined a medium-term path to reduce the reliance on oil receipts. This includes new tax revenue measures such as the 5 per cent value-added tax introduced in April 2021 and spending rationalisation since 2020.”
The ratings are also supported by “still-strong government liquid assets estimated at 47 per cent of GDP in 2022”, S&P said.
The agency expects Oman's economy to grow in 2022 and 2023.
Real GDP will grow by nearly 4 per cent in 2022, moderating to about 2.2 per cent on average over 2023-2025, S&P said.
“Over the next three years, we expect the non-oil sector to be the leading driver of growth. We forecast non-oil growth averaging 2.2 per cent over 2023-2025, relative to 1.8 per cent in 2022,” the agency said.
“We expect Oman will achieve a fiscal surplus of 5.7 per cent of GDP this year, from the budgeted deficit of 4.6 per cent of GDP.”
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
SWEET%20TOOTH
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Company%C2%A0profile
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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Remaining fixtures
Third-place-play-off: Portugal v Mexico, 4pm on Sunday
Final: Chile v Germany, 10pm on Sunday
Could%20We%20Be%20More
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2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
LIST OF INVITEES
Shergo Kurdi (am)
Rayhan Thomas
Saud Al Sharee (am)
Min Woo Lee
Todd Clements
Matthew Jordan
AbdulRahman Al Mansour (am)
Matteo Manassero
Alfie Plant
Othman Al Mulla
Shaun Norris
