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Is Oman’s model of governance about to shift?

Oman's debts are piling up as oil prices crash, putting at risk its wide-reaching social welfare system.
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“Over the past 40 years, the government was like our mother,” said Mohammed al-Salmi, a financial analyst at the Central Bank of Oman.

​Like other Gulf states, Oman does not grant citizens freedom of expression or the right to choose their leader, but it does provide citizens a range of material advantages: public sector jobs, subsidies, free health care and education, a free plot of land, a pension and no income tax.

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