Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Sultanate rose by 15 per cent, to RO9.34bn in 2017, from RO8.09bn in the fourth quarter in 2016. Among various countries, the United Kingdom topped the list of investors in the Sultanate, with direct investment of RO4.45bn in 2017, against RO3.50bn in the previous year, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The United Kingdom (UK) was followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an investment of RO1.02bn, Kuwait with RO416.5mn, Qatar at RO388mn, Bahrain with RO337.3mn, the United States at RO293.9mn, India with RO280.6mn and Switzerland at RO277.1mn). Further, the flow of foreign direct investment from other countries was RO1.61bn in 2017.

The oil and gas sector attracted the maximum foreign investment of RO5.16bn in 2017, against RO3.98bn for the previous year, noted the NCSI report.

The flow of foreign direct investment to the financial sector was RO1.41bn, against RO1.43bn in 2016, while manufacturing and real estate sectors attracted foreign investment of RO1.04bn and RO651.5mn in 2017, against RO1.05bn and RO618.8mn, respectively, in 2016.