(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Muscat- Total foreign direct investments (FDI) in Oman rose 13.3 per cent during the first three quarters of 2017 and reached to RO8.32bn compared to RO7.16bn in the same period of the previous year, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The sultanate received around RO1.16bn of FDI inflows during the year ended September 30, 2017.

The UK, with its total direct investments of RO3.51bn at the end of the third quarter of 2017, ranked as the top country in terms of FDI into Oman. The UK's total FDI in Oman stood at RO3.04bn a year ago.

Total FDI from the UAE, which came at second position in terms of direct investments in Oman, stood at RO949.3mn as of the end of third quarter of 2017 compared with RO785.8mn a year ago. Foreign direct investments by Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar were RO458.3mn, RO455.4mn and RO443.9mn, respectively.

Investments from the US saw a remarkable improvement in 2017 with total FDI reaching RO367.2mn compared with RO231.2mn a year ago.

Investments from India stood at RO330.5mn, while Swiss investments came at RO312.5mn until the end of the third quarter of 2017.

The NCSI statistics showed that the foreign investment in the oil and gas exploration activity stood at RO4.13bn compared with RO3.37bn at the end of third quarter of the previous year. FDI in Oman's financial sector rose to RO1.4bn in the end of third quarter of 2017 from RO1.26bn a year ago. Industrial sector recorded total FDI of RO1.03bn, while foreign investments in real estate sector stood at RO691.6mn.

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