AMMAN —
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the
Department of Statistics, the
trade balance deficit increased by 31.9 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.
اضافة اعلان
Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply Spokesman Yanal Al Barmawi told
Jordan News that Jordan exports much less than it imports, which results in the trade
balance deficit.
In 2020, he
said, the entire world experienced economic difficulties; Jordan experienced a
significant decline in total exports at the time, with the effects of these
difficulties manifesting themselves in 2021.
Jordan,
according to Barmawi, relies heavily on imports for its needs, particularly
crude oil and gas from the Gulf countries, and, normally, the higher the oil
prices as a result of global conditions, the larger the trade balance deficit.
He emphasized
that among the ministry’s plans and strategies is the ongoing work to reduce
the trade balance deficit by increasing the value of Jordanian exports and
opening new markets for them.
According to economist Ahmed Thoqan Hindawi, the
COVID-19 pandemic created an international supply chain crisis all over the
world, whether for raw material suppliers, importers, traders, or citizens, and
this affected Jordan’s economic sector in 2020 and was expected to have a
negative impact on the Jordanian trade balance through 2021.
Hindawi said
that what helped during these difficult times were the support programs
provided by the government and the
Central Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic,
through which interest rates were reduced, loan repayments were postponed, and
several programs to support enterprises were established, as well as the
Central Bank’s repurchasing of financial bonds.
All this, said
Hindawi, resulted in the injection of JD2.7 billion into the market, which
should help improve the capacities of the productive sectors.
“All these
efforts are expected to bear fruit in 2022, as the trade deficit in 2021 was
expected,” he said, adding that because the world is gradually emerging from
the pandemic, the results of industrial, commercial, and economic recovery will
begin to emerge this year, and the gap between Jordanian exports and imports
will narrow.
Economist
Mufleh Aqel told
Jordan News that the trade balance deficit appears to be less
in 2020 than in 2021 because work was disrupted in some sectors, with no
discernible impact on the trade balance. According to him, the demand and
consumption curves were narrow, so both imports and exports decreased, but the
decrease in import was greater than the decrease in exports.
According to
Aqel, in 2021 exports increased to approximately JD6,650 million, while imports
reached JD15,300 million dinars, bringing the trade balance deficit to more
than JD8 million dinars.
Aqel said he did
not expect any significant improvement in the gap between exports and imports,
and that the reality is that Jordanian exports have not increased significantly
in recent years, and will not unless there is a structural change in the
economy to improve these exports.
Read more Business
.jpg)
.jpg)
