HM sends greetings

MUSCAT: A warning that oil prices will stay low for ‘next year or two’ has been issued by the chief economist of a global investment house while in Oman.

With oil prices plummeting globally over the past year, the Sultanate’s finances have taken a hammering, forcing the government to embrace austerity measures such as freezing some employee benefits in state-run companies and increasing fuel prices.

Fees for government services have increased, and more increases are likely, while Income Tax for com- panies based in Oman is to be raised, and the Sultanate is moving towards introducing Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods for sale, along with other Gulf countries, in 2018 or 2019.

Earlier this week, Oman’s Minister of Oil and Gas Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, said he hoped crude oil prices could recover by the end of this year if a meeting of Opec and non-Opec members scheduled to take place in Qatari capital Doha next month decides to freeze output.

However, speaking on the sidelines of the Coinvestment Roundtable of Sovereign and Pension Funds (CROSAPF) Working Committee here in Oman on Tuesday, John Greenwood, chief economist of Invesco, which represents hundreds of clients in 20 countries around the globe, said: “It is very hard to see the oil price picking up in the next year or two; it will take longer than we thought.”

MUSCAT

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Dr. Hassan Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the occasion of the new Iranian year “Nayrouz Day.”