Oman’s nominal GDP plunged 11.1% to OMR17.48bn for the first nine months of 2016, against OMR19.65bn for the same January-September period of 2015. This was against the government’s projection of 3% annual GDP growth, made at the beginning of the year. A 28.9% drop in average price of Oman Crude (to USD40.1/barrel) in international markets last year substantially pulled down the country’s revenue from hydrocarbon activities by 35.1% to OMR4.64bn from as high as OMR7.15bn during the January-September period, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). (Times of Oman)