Oman Inflation Holds at 3.2 Percent in July as Food Prices Rise 7.7 Percent
Consumer prices in the Sultanate of Oman rose 3.2 percent in July 2026 against the same month a year earlier, according to the Consumer Price Inflation Report published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information on 13 August 2026. The index is calculated on a 2018 base year.
The headline figure understates what households met at the grocery counter. Prices in the food group rose 7.7 percent in July 2026 against July 2025, more than double the all-items rate.
The month also sits above the year so far. Average inflation across the seven months from January to July 2026 was 2.9 percent, so July’s 3.2 percent marks a rate running ahead of the year-to-date pace rather than in line with it. A single month is not a trend, and the gap between the two measures is three tenths of a percentage point, but the direction is the one worth watching into the second half.
The geography is where the number stops being national
The most striking feature of the release is how little a single national rate describes. Inflation in July 2026 ranged from 2.1 percent in Dhofar to 4.4 percent in Al Dhahirah, a spread of 2.3 percentage points between the slowest and fastest governorates on The Edge’s calculation from the centre’s figures, against a national average of 3.2.
| Governorate | Inflation, July 2026, percent |
|---|---|
| Al Dhahirah | 4.4 |
| Ad Dakhiliyah | 3.7 |
| Muscat | 3.4 |
| Al Wusta | 3.4 |
| Musandam | 3.0 |
| South Al Sharqiyah | 3.0 |
| Al Buraimi | 2.8 |
| North Al Batinah | 2.5 |
| North Al Sharqiyah | 2.5 |
| South Al Batinah | 2.4 |
| Dhofar | 2.1 |
| Sultanate of Oman | 3.2 |
All figures are year-on-year for July 2026, from the National Centre for Statistics and Information, Consumer Price Inflation Report, July 2026, published 13 August 2026. Base year 2018. Every rate compares July 2026 with July 2025.
Muscat sits at 3.4 percent, marginally above the national rate. Al Dhahirah at 4.4 percent is more than double Dhofar’s 2.1. Governorate-level dispersion of this size means measures calibrated to the national average will land differently across the country, and it is the sort of detail that a single headline number erases.
Why it matters
The number that deserves attention is the 7.7 percent food rate, which is running at more than double the all-items rate.
The release also arrives in the same week as the Sultanate’s 84th Government Development Bond, announced by the Central Bank of Oman on 12 August 2026: a seven-year issue of OMR 80 million with a 20 million greenshoe, carrying a coupon of 4.50 percent, with subscription from 16 to 20 August, auction on 23 August and issue on 25 August. The bond is allocated by competitive auction on a yield basis, so the return investors ultimately earn is not the coupon and is not yet known. What can be said is that a 4.50 percent coupon is being offered into an economy printing 3.2 percent headline inflation, which is what makes this week’s inflation figure a funding-cost story as well as a cost-of-living one.
Outlook
The next Consumer Price Inflation Report, covering August 2026, is the test of whether July’s step above the year-to-date average is noise or the start of a drift. The food group is the series to watch: if 7.7 percent persists into the autumn while the headline stays near 3, the composition of Omani inflation will have changed even if its level has not.
Sources: National Centre for Statistics and Information, Sultanate of Oman, Consumer Price Inflation Report, July 2026, published 13 August 2026 per the centre’s own publications index. Central Bank of Oman, press release on the 84th issue of Government Development Bonds, 12 August 2026.
