Oman to boost spending modestly in 2019 budget

DUBAI, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Oman's government expects to increase spending modestly this year under a 2019 state budget released on Tuesday, an official statement said.

Spending is projected at 12.9 billion rials ($33.5 billion), up from 12.5 billion rials in the original budget for 2018. Revenues are estimated at 10.1 billion rials, assuming an average oil price of $58 per barrel this year.

That would leave a 2019 budget deficit of 2.8 billion rials. In the first 10 months of 2018, the government ran a deficit of 2.04 billion rials, according to the latest data from the statistics agency. (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Writing by Tuqa Khalid; Editing by Andrew Torchia)