AFP/Muscat
Non-Opec member Oman on Thursday announced a budget deficit for 2015 of $6.47bn (5.35bn euros), reflecting the effect on Gulf producers of plummeting crude oil prices.
The budget includes expenditure of $36.5bn, up 4.5% from 2014, and revenue of $30.03bn, down 1.0%, the official ONA news agency cited the finance ministry as saying.
The projected deficit will represent 21% of public revenue and 8.0% of the sultanate's GDP.
Oman is a small producer of crude, at about one million barrels per day.
Current expenditure accounts for the lion's share at 68% of public spending, far ahead of investments (23%), the ministry said.
Because of the falling price of oil - which brings in 79% of Muscat's revenues - the government had to "take preventative measures... to preserve financial and economic stability", the ministry's statement said.
However, these "would have no impact" on the standard of living or on social services and employment, it added.
The statement said subsidies on consumer goods and social services in the new budget would account for 8.0% of public expenditure in 2015.