The Governor of the Central Bank of Jordan, Ziyad Fariz, affirmed that it is too early to guess on the negative impact on the Kingdom’s economy from the strict isolation measures, which began about a month ago to stop the spread of the new Corona virus.
Fariz explained that the growth projections are premature, and that it is difficult to predict the extent of the negative impact on the growth rate. Noting that the crisis resulted in a sharp decline in demand and production, revealing that the tourism sector, which was booming, was severely affected and needs at least a year to recover.
The International Monetary Fund had expected Jordan's economy to grow by 2.1% in 2020 and to increase gradually in the next few years to reach 3.3%.
Jordan fears that the impact of the crisis on the tourism sector, which generates revenues of about $5 billion annually, will reduce growth expectations and deepen an economic downturn and a slowdown in domestic consumption that was evident even before the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Fariz said that it has been about a month now and the Jordanian economy is almost halted.
Jordan was the fastest in the region to take strong measures, to stop the spread of the virus by imposing strict isolation, which caused the suspension of large sectors of the economy.
The Central Bank of Jordan took a series of measures last month, to ease the repercussions by reducing interest rates and mandatory reserves for commercial banks to pump additional liquidity in excess of 500 million dinars ($705 million).
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, Edited)
