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Jordan Economy 1996

Overview:

Jordan benefited from increased Arab aid during the oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when its annual real GNP growth averaged more than 10%. In the remainder of the 1980s, however, reductions in both Arab aid and worker remittances slowed real economic growth to an average of roughly 2% per year. Imports - mainly oil, capital goods, consumer durables, and food - outstripped exports, with the difference covered by aid, remittances, and borrowing. In mid-1989, the Jordanian Government began debt-rescheduling negotiations and agreed to implement an IMF-supported program designed to gradually reduce the budget deficit and implement badly needed structural reforms. The Persian Gulf crisis that began in August 1990, however, aggravated Jordan's already serious economic problems, forcing the government to shelve the IMF program, stop most debt payments, and suspend rescheduling negotiations. Aid from Gulf Arab states, worker remittances, and trade contracted; and refugees flooded the country, producing serious balance-of-payments problems, stunting GDP growth, and straining government resources. The economy rebounded in 1992, largely due to the influx of capital repatriated by workers returning from the Gulf, but the recovery was uneven throughout 1994. The government is implementing the reform program adopted in 1992 and continues to secure rescheduling and write-offs of its heavy foreign debt. Debt, poverty, and unemployment remain Jordan's biggest on-going problems.

National product:

GDP - purchasing power parity - $17 billion (1994 est.)

National product real growth rate:

5.5% (1994 est.)

National product per capita:

$4,280 (1994 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

6% (1994 est.)

Unemployment rate:

16% (1994 est.)

Budget:

revenues:

$2 billion

expenditures:

$2.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $630 million (1995 est.)

Exports:

$1.4 billion (f.o.b., 1994)

commodities:

phosphates, fertilizers, potash, agricultural products, manufactures

partners:

India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, EU, Indonesia, UAE

Imports:

$3.5 billion (c.i.f., 1994)

commodities:

crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, food, live animals, manufactured goods

partners:

EU, US, Iraq, Japan, Turkey

External debt:

$6 billion (March 1995 est.)

Industrial production:

growth rate 3% (1993 est.); accounts for 20% of GDP

Electricity:

capacity:

1,050,000 kW

production:

4.2 billion kWh

consumption per capita:

1,072 kWh (1993)

Industries:

phosphate mining, petroleum refining, cement, potash, light manufacturing

Agriculture:

accounts for about 8% of GDP; wheat, barley, citrus fruit, tomatoes, melons, olives; sheep, goats, poultry; large net importer of food

Economic aid:

recipient:

US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $1.7 billion; Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments (1970-89), $1.5 billion; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $9.5 billion; Communist countries (1970-89), $44 million

Currency:

1 Jordanian dinar (JD) = 1,000 fils

Exchange rates:

Jordanian dinars (JD) per US$1 - 0.6994 (January 1995), 0.5987 (1994), 0.6928 (1993), 0.6797 (1992), 0.6808 (1991), 0.6636 (1990)

Fiscal year:

calendar year

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