Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), confirmed that Jordan has already implemented a series of measures to strengthen its ability to respond to economic challenges. This comes amid expectations that the country may be affected by rising prices due to ongoing war tensions in the Middle East.
اضافة اعلان
During a press conference at the IMF headquarters in Washington, Azour stated that the staff-level agreement reached with the IMF on the fifth review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the second review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) "reflects an appreciation for the prudent measures Jordan has taken to protect its economy."
Azour noted that these measures included increasing maritime and shipping activity through the Port of Aqaba, alongside enhancing the Kingdom’s overall readiness to handle economic shocks.
According to the IMF, these actions also encompass:
Ensuring energy security.
Facilitating supply chains.
Guaranteeing liquidity in financial markets.
Providing targeted support to the most vulnerable groups.
The IMF emphasized, following the conclusion of the two recent staff-level reviews, that the Jordanian economy entered the Middle East conflict with strong momentum and continues to demonstrate resilience. However, the effects of the war are weighing on short-term outlooks, particularly through energy markets and the tourism sector. Growth is expected to slow somewhat in 2026.
The Fund projects that the Jordanian economy will grow by 2.7% this year, rising to 3.1% in 2027. This comes at a time when the IMF has lowered its growth forecasts for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAP) region to 1.4% for the current year.
The report, issued Thursday and monitored by "Al-Mamlaka," slightly lowered the 2026 growth forecast for Jordan by 0.2 percentage points compared to October estimates, while marginally raising the 2027 forecast by 0.1 percentage points.
