Oman

The inhabitants of the area of Oman have long prospered on Indian Ocean trade. In the late 18th century, a newly established sultanate in Muscat signed the first in a series of friendship treaties with Britain. Over time, Oman's dependence on British political and military advisors increased, but it never became a British colony. In 1970, QABOOS bin Said Al-Said overthrew the restrictive rule of his father; he has ruled as sultan ever since. His extensive modernization program has opened the country to the outside world while preserving the longstanding close ties with the UK. Oman's moderate, independent foreign policy has sought to maintain good relations with all Middle Eastern countries.

Economical characteristics

• Currency: Rial (ISO code: OMR)
• Central bank discount rate: 0.91% (31 December 2008)
• Commercial banks lending rate: 7.1% (31 December 2008)
• Stock of money (M1): $5.25 billion (31 December 2008)
• Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $14.57 billion (31 December 2008)

Statistics

Statistic / Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
GDP (million USD)	15 710	19 868	19 949	20 049	21 542	24 674	30 905	36 804	41 638
Govt. debt (% of GDP)	26.678	19.071	19.867
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)	23.086	23.910	26.994
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)	28.380	26.187	26.927
Debt to revenue (years)	1.156	0.798	0.736

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

External links

• Oman on Wikipedia
• Central bank of Oman
• Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
• Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
• BBC country profile