Oman has repaid $1.5 billion – part of the government loans before their maturity date.
In a statement issued, the country’s finance ministry said the government managed to reduce an estimated of about OMR 1.1 billion, or $2.8 billion, without resorting to re-financing.
This includes USD 1.3 billion bond repaid by the government in January 2023.
The public debt is down to about OMR 16.6 billion by the end of March 2023, compared to OMR 17.7 billion reported at the end of 2022.
At the same time, Oman also reduced significantly the interest rate for the same loan through negotiation with lenders. This resulted in obtaining a lower financing cost than the currently market prevailing financing rates whilst maintaining same lenders group of international and regional banks. The successful repricing confirms Oman’s robust financial position.
The Ministry of Finance stated that the effective debt management activities taken led to achieving savings in the costs of servicing public debt about USD one billion, or about RO 385 million over the average life of debt portfolio.
