Jordan News

According to data from the Central Bank of Jordan, Jordanian foreign grants decreased by 128.3 million dinars by 18% in the first 11 months of 2021 to reach 583.9 million dinars.

The economic expert, Muhammad al-Bashir, said that “the external grants were originally intended to help the state reach the stage of sufficiency and avoid the need for grants in the future, but in the absence of economic reform, Jordan cannot dispense with grants and foreign grants.”

Al-Bashir added that officials should use these grants to help the economy grow and solve the country’s structural problems, stressing that the biggest problem is that the industrial, agricultural and tourism sectors represent a small part of the GDP, as more than 70 percent of the GDP is represented by banks and professions. other service.

According to Bashir, the success of other countries can often be attributed to the industrial and agricultural sectors, which account for at least 60 percent of their GDP. The reason is that these industries create jobs, which help close the trade deficit and increase exports, and this is what Jordan needs.

For his part, economic expert Wajdi Makhamreh said that “Jordan cannot dispense with external grants in the near future,” adding that the public budget relies heavily on it.

Makhamra explained that the grants were much larger a few years ago when the Gulf grant totaled more than $4 billion in one year, adding that the government’s mistake is to continue to rely on donations and not use them properly.

He said, “These grants have often been used to pay off the budget deficit or establish projects that add little value to the Jordanian economy,” stressing that the decline in grants will have a significant impact on Jordan, “primarily because the government will have to rely on other sources of funding, such as loans. As a result, the debt will grow, or the government may raise taxes on citizens.”

Makhamra added that at a time when the government is increasingly dependent on domestic revenues, the need for foreign aid will continue, and stressed the need to use grants to “establish worthwhile projects that directly reduce unemployment rates and thus reduce indebtedness, bridge the budget deficit, and support exports as the best solution to this.” economic deficit.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nasser al-Shraideh revealed that Jordan received 712 million dinars in foreign grants in 2020. In 2021, Jordan received $2.5 billion in grants and foreign aid, including $1.2 billion in grants and $1.3 billion in soft loans.