Muscat: The Sultanate’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 16.5 per cent, reaching RO18.189 billion at current market prices by the end of September 2020, according to recently revealed data by the NCSI.

There was a fall in petroleum activities by 24.4 per cent at the end of September 2020, registering RO5,790.9 billion compared to RO7,662.21 billion at the end of September 2019.

The share of crude petroleum from among petroleum activities was RO4,638.9 billion, which is a decrease of 28.3 per cent from the end of September 2019, when it was RO6,468.5 billion.

The activities of natural gas also decreased by 3.5 per cent, reaching RO1,152 billion compared to RO 1,193.6 billion by the end of September 2019.

Total non-petroleum activities fell by 12.4 per cent to RO13,152.8 billion. Services activities were at the forefront of non-petroleum activities, which was RO9,285.4 billion, down by 10.6 per cent over RO10,385.2 billion at the end of September 2019.

Hotels and restaurants, wholesale and retail trade, and transport, storage, and communication rose by 35.7 per cent, 31.4 per cent and 17.5 per cent, respectively.

On the real estate services, financial intermediation, and pubic administration and defense activities front, a drop by 14.2 per cent, 10.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent was observed, respectively.

Industrial activities fell by 19.8 per cent to RO3,296.4 billion at the end of September 2020. The manufacturing of the basic chemical sector fell by 28.8 per cent, while manufacturing, construction, and other manufacturing industries also fell by 24.6 per cent, 21 per cent and 20.4 per cent.

Electricity and water supply increased by 1.1 per cent, whereas other mining and quarrying fell by 0.4 per cent. The activities related to agriculture and fisheries sectors showed an increase of 9.8 per cent to reach RO571 million by end of September 2020, compared to RO520.1 million at the end of September 2019.