IMF Director of Middle East and Central Asia Management: Jordan maintains the stability of its economy

Al-Anbat- Seham Qasem

IMF Director of Middle East and Central Asia Jihad Azour said on Thursday that Jordan had managed to cope with many major global and regional shocks and maintained its economic stability despite a relatively high dept.

During a press conference on the margins of the spring meetings of the Monetary Fund and the International Bank, Azour added that Jordan’s economic growth levels are " low due to high unemployment levels” due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic according to Almamlaka TV.

He noted that "stability is a key entry point for economic prosperity”, explaining that Jordan’s prosperity is achieved through deepening reforms that improve the business environment and work to reduce the cost of energy, raise investment, and benefit from investments in neighboring countries.

Azour lauded the reforms that Jordan has begun to implement and he said:” We count on the ability of the Jordanian economy to invest in renewable energy projects and expand opportunities in the manufacturing and services sectors to invest in growth”.

Jordan joined the IMF on 29 August 1952, during which it conducted 7 economic programs, the first in 1989 and the most recent is the program” Facilitating the Extended Fund”, which concludes its last audit in 2024.

The IMF projected GDP growth to be around 2.7% in 2023 and reach 3% in the medium term after reaching 2.5% last year up from 2.2% in 2021.

As for the impact of global inflation, Jordan’s inflation tended to decline to about 3.8% in the current year, from 4.2%, and "it is the lowest inflation rate in the Arab World outside the GCC”.

According to the Department of Statistics, the unemployment rate among Jordanians over the past five years has risen by nearly 4.2% reaching 18.7% by the end of 2018, and at the end of last year, it reached about 22.9%.