Oman has the means to maintain its currency peg and has no plans to change it even though the decline in oil prices has hurt its finances, central bank Governor Tahir Al Amri said. Oman’s gross foreign currency reserves, which stood at USD19.6bn at the end of January, are enough to cover nearly nine months’ worth of imports, he adds. Al Amri said Oman is also in discussions with major international strategic partners to explore ways to deepen financial and commercial transactions. He didn’t identify those countries but said they were outside the Gulf.
 
Real GDP growth for 2018 is expected to be at least 3%, according to the budget, which was based on an oil price of USD50, he said. Only a small amount of a USD10bn 2011 grant offered by Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait and Qatar has been used to finance a few projects, Al Amri said. “We need to work hard to accelerate the diversification measures. We need to make sure we start doing things differently,” he said.