Gov’t reining in public debt growth — Al-Ississ

AMMAN — The government has managed to curb the growth rate of public debt from 21 per cent in 2012 to 3.8 per cent in 2018, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mohamad Al-Ississ said on Wednesday.

During a meeting with the Lower House Economy and Investment Committee, Ississ noted that the debt growth rate in 2010 stood at 14 per cent and in 2011 at 15 per cent, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In this regard, he said that the net general debt in the first five months of the year stood at JD29.3 billion, constituting 94.6 per cent of the GDP.

The minister added that this year the government secured a loan of $1.4 billion at a very low interest rate, which has been used to repay a due loan in June, and the Kingdom also received a 100-million-euro loan with a zero interest rate that has to be repaid by 2035.

Ississ noted that the unemployment rate among Jordanians reached 19 per cent in the first quarter of the year, 16.4 per cent among males and 28.9 per cent among females.

He added that the total deposits of licensed banks by the end of May stood at JD34 billion, while the reserve of foreign currencies at the Central Bank of Jordan for the same period amounted to $11.2 billion.

The minister stressed that the reserve is enough to cover the Kingdom’s imports of goods and services for six months. 

MP Khair Abul Saalik, head of the committee, reviewed the panel’s preparations for the second economic parliamentary conference slated for September.