AMMAN — The
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that Jordan’s economic recovery “remains moderate, but
strong”, with an annual growth of 2.5 percent in the first half of 2022,
broadly supported by the service and industry sectors, and the strong recovery
of tourism, according to Khaberni.
اضافة اعلان
However,
Jordan’s annual inflation has continued to rise, reaching 5.3 percent in July
2022, due to the increase in food prices and a 30.6 percent rise in energy
prices following electricity tariff reforms, the bank added in a report issued
on Wednesday.
According to the
report, “GDP growth is expected to stabilize at 2.0 percent in 2022, as the
repercussions of the war on Ukraine affect trade flows and tourism.”
The report
indicated that there is “faster growth in the non-service sector, and a
stronger recovery in global tourism, and trade flows could bring growth in 2023
to 2.7 percent”.
Achieving growth
will depend on the country successfully implementing the reforms announced
under the government’s Economic Modernization Plan to attract foreign direct
investment and support new engines of growth.
Economic growth
is expected to be helped by ongoing IMF-supported reforms; the main risks to
the economic outlook include an erosion of real competitiveness due to an
overvalued exchange rate, regional instability, and a slower-than-usual
recovery in partner economies, the report said.
Meanwhile,
economic expert
Mazen Marji said Wednesday that the inflation figures announced
in Jordan do not reflect the truth, particularly in view of the successive
rises in commodity prices.
In statements to
Khaberni, Marji said that the inflation rate was 2.46 percent at the beginning
of the year, that the current figures for inflation cannot be realistic, and
that the actual number is higher, due to the increase in the prices of dozens
of commodities since the beginning of the year.
According to the
Department of Statistics data, the government’s statistical arm in Jordan, the
inflation rate reached 3.34 percent in the first half of this year; EBRD
estimates that the annual inflation stood at 5.3 percent in July.
Marji stressed
that certain statistics do not give a real indication of the inflation
situation in Jordan, because inflation is not the result of high demand for
goods, but rather the result of high prices.
He explained that the
commodities being studied to determine the inflation index are incorrect, and
that the inflation Jordan suffers from is caused by monopoly, in addition to
the global rise in prices.
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