Jordan Finance Minister Mohamad Al-Ississ said that the Kingdom has successfully reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a staff-level agreement, in a move that enhances confidence in the Kingdom’s ability to achieve economic recovery and overcome the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic on the national economy.
The minister, in a press statement on Friday, stressed that the main issue for the government is to reduce unemployment rates and create job opportunities for Jordanian youth by promoting economic growth.
The agreement was concluded with an IMF team led by S. Ali Abbas, during a virtual discussion on the third review of the economic reform programme supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement.
This agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s management and the Executive Board, according to an IMF statement.
“Preventive actions and a robust vaccination campaign mitigated the effects of recent COVID-19 variants through the summer,” Abbas said in a statement. “Helped by the economic reopening, a recovery, supported by targeted fiscal and monetary measures, is underway, with real GDP growth expected around 2 percent in 2021”.
He added that the government is on track to narrow its fiscal deficit by 1 percent of GDP in 2021, “reflecting robust revenue collection on the back of a significant institutional effort to tackle tax evasion and improve tax compliance”.
“Growth is expected to accelerate in 2022 to 2.7 per cent as the recovery gains steam and structural reforms begin to bear fruit,” Abbas said. “Against this backdrop, agreement was reached on the fiscal targets for 2022, which will help stabilise public debt, while allowing space for the extension of important social protection and job retention programmes; and public investment, thereby bolstering the gradual recovery”.