Oman’s inflation falls 23.3% in fourth quarter

Muscat: Oman's Producer Price Index (PPI)-based inflation eased by 23.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter of 2014, according to data released by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). Meanwhile, compared with the previous quarter, fourth quarter inflation was down by eight per cent.
Prices of oil and gas products declined 26.6 per cent year-on-year in fourth quarter, while non-oil products fell by 7.1 per cent.
Crude Oil and Natural Gas logged a price decline of 26.2 per cent. At the same time, refined oil products went down by 29.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year compared with prior year.
Inflation in the non-oil manufacturing sector decreased 9.6 per cent, while Mining, Electricity & Water prices went up 1.1 per cent. Minerals, Stones & Sands also saw a 5.3 per cent upward revision, while Food, Beverages & Textiles Products logged a price fall of 5.3 per cent. The decline in Fish, Fruit, Vegetables & Oils stood at 9.3 per cent, whereas Dairy Products saw prices falling by 11.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with prior year quarter.
The decline was 2.1 per cent in the bakery and other food product category.
Beverages logged a price fall of 0.3 per cent, while clothing, textiles and footwear went up by three per cent during the period. Transportable goods declined 8.7 per cent, while prices of paints went down 3.7 per cent. There was a 2.2 per cent price fall in the Pharmaceutical Products subset.
Rubber & Plastics Products registered a 1.3 per cent price slump, in contrast to a 0.9 per cent price rise in Glass, Cement & Marble Products.
Interestingly, Furniture, Jewellery Manufacturing & Anti-Melted Metal Waste subset maintained price stability in fourth quarter compared with same quarter in 2014. Metal Products, Machinery & Equipment on the other hand witnessed a price decline to the tune of 14.2 per cent. Steel and Aluminium fabricated products posted a price fall of 18.1 per cent during the comparable quarters.