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.
“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.
