Day: April 27, 2022

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, Yousef Shamali, discussed remotely with British Minister of State for Trade Policy, Penny Mordaunt, discussed ways to enhance joint economic cooperation during the first meeting of the Jordan-UK Partnership Council (JUPC).

Shamali stressed the “strong” bilateral relations and the joint keenness to develop them “continually,” especially in the economic fields, describing the ties as a “model” for joint cooperation at the international level.

Jordan-uk partnership is based on cooperation in areas that serve common interests and increase benefits from the opportunities available in both countries, Shamali said.

The JUPC, Shamali noted, is an opportunity to increase volume of economic cooperation, especially in terms of increasing trade exchange, and stimulating Jordanian and British private sectors to cooperate in the investment fields, exchange visits, hold exhibitions and economic events, within the framework of efforts to increase joint economic cooperation.

Shamali said: “We seek to put in place the necessary mechanisms to increase joint trade in light of the benefits and facilitations included in the Jordan-UK partnership agreement, and work to increase volume of Jordanian exports to the British market and reduce trade balance deficit, which tilts significantly in favor of Britain.”

For her part, the British minister affirmed her country’s interest in developing economic cooperation with Jordan in various fields, including increasing the trade volume and directing the Jordanian and British private sectors to set up investment projects and take advantage of available opportunities.

The Jordan-UK partnership agreement establishes “advanced” economic relations between them in the coming years, and supports initiatives and efforts to revive trade, establish investments and cooperate in other economic aspects, Mordaunt pointed out.

During the meeting, the JUPC’s procedural rules were approved, and a partnership committee was established, in addition to adopting an action plan to strengthen trade and economic relations, and launching 4 main panels in the current stage, covering economic , energy, transport, health, and tourism areas.

The agreement, which entered into force as of May 1, 2021, serves interests of the two countries’ governments to consolidate their solid relations and sustain their bilateral economic and trade relations, after the United Kingdom’s official exit from the European Union.

The agreement also grants preferential treatment through exemption from customs duties for exchanged goods, in a manner equivalent to the treatment in force within the framework of the Jordan-European Partnership Agreement. The pact provides an institutional framework for strengthening bilateral cooperation based on serving the common interests.

Source: Jordan News Agency

On the Middle East and Central Asia, he underlined that the region was suffered the impacts of the Omicron variant and the Ukrainian-Russian war, which cast a negative shadow on commodity prices and global supply chains due to its dependence on wheat imports, adding that this war is expected to affect the rapid recovery of monetary and financial policies.

Azour expected a drop in the region’s GDP growth by 5 per cent this year compared to last year’s 5.8 per cent.

He also expected a drop in inflation rates in the region to score 13.9 per cent, compared to 14.8 per cent recorded last year.

He explained that the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia will lead to a further divergence between the expected recovery prospects for the countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, despite the momentum witnessed in 2021, which was better than previous projections.

He further added that the exceptional adverse effects and uncertainties, especially in commodity-importing countries, has become the distinguishing feature of the economic environment in the current year, with the hike in commodity prices, increased volatility, the increase of inflationary pressures, and the rapid return to normal monetary policy in advanced economies compared to previous projections, and the repercussions of the pandemic, which are not over yet.

Azour pointed out that the policy-making process had become “increasingly complex” with less room for action for macro policies to deal with shocks, in a context of high levels of debt and inflation.

He called for careful calibration of policies according to the circumstances of each country, in order to deal with uncertainties, maintain macroeconomic stability, support recovery while protecting the most vulnerable groups and ensure food and energy security.

“The IMF continues to closely engage with countries of the region to provide advice on policy and technical support, in addition to the $20 billion funding it has granted to the region since the beginning of the crisis, and the distribution of allocations from Special Drawing Rights amounting to $49.3 billion as a complement to the special reserve assets in the region,” Azour further explained.

At the global level, the report projected a slow down in global economic growth by 3.6 per cent for current and next year, compared to the 6.1 per cent growth achieved by the global economy last year.

Source: Jordan News Agency

A senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said Jordan, in the past two years, has managed to overcome several crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the hike in interest rates globally, and finally the Russian-Ukrainian war and its impacts on food prices.

Director of IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, said the Jordanian economy is expected to grow by 2.4 per cent this year, and the pace of growth will rise next year to reach 3.1 per cent and 3.3 percent in 2024.

Azour gave his remarks in response to queries from the Jordan News Agency (Petra) in a press conference held Wednesday in Washington, to discuss the “World Economic Outlook” report for the Middle East and Central Asia region.

Azour added that the Jordanian government was able to achieve growth by continuing its reform approach.

“At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the first program of the IMF was established, which aimed to raise the levels of spending on social affairs to enable Jordan to confront the pandemic and Jordan’s levels of capabilities and readiness were raised, whether in terms of health services or in terms of dispensing vaccinations, which contributed to improving levels of economic growth,” Azour said in the press conference.

He noted that Jordan was able, despite the difficult economic conditions, to achieve economic stability and continue to carry out structural reforms to resume the desired economic recovery for this year.

On unemployment rates, Azour pointed out that Jordan, like many other countries in the world, saw an increase in unemployment rates due to the pandemic, which went over 24 per cent, compared to 19 per cent expected next year, which requires the continuation of structural reforms to increase production capacity and enable the private sector to play its role to secure more jobs.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Jordan’s trade balance deficit in the first two months of 2022 increased by 31.2 percent, hitting JD1.543 billion compared to JD1.176 billion reported in the same period of 2021.

According to a monthly report issued by the Department of Statistics (DoS) on Wednesday, total exports in the same period of 2022 reached JD1.216 billion, up by 35 percent from the JD901 million recorded in 2021.

National exports in the same period of 2022 rose by 37.2 percent, topping JD1.100 billion compared to JD801.8 million in the same period of 2021, figures showed. The value of re-exports was at JD116 million, up by 17.2 percent compared with the JD99.6 million of the same period of 2021, the DoS added.

Imports in January and February of 2022 also went up by 32.9 percent, reaching JD2.760 billion compared to the JD2.077 billion recorded in the same period of 2021.

Accordingly, the export-to-import ratio stood at 44.1 percent in the same period of 2022, compared with 43.4 percent in the same period of 2021, indicating a 0.7-percent increase.

On a monthly level, national exports hit JD576.7 million in February of 2022 against JD397 million in the same month of 2021, up by 45.3 percent.

Source: Jordan News Agency