AMMAN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's economy has been witnessing obvious growth following the reopening of all economic sectors and improvement in the country's macroeconomic indicators since the beginning of 2021, according to experts.
Like other economies in the world, the country has suffered heavy economic losses since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic due to repeated lockdowns and restrictions on various sectors, but the situation has been improving since the beginning of this year as seen in many indicators.
Jordan's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.2 percent in the first nine months of 2021 compared with the figure reported in the same period of 2020, according to figures released by the Department of Statistics.
According to the figures, the construction sector expanded by 5.7 percent in the second quarter of this year, followed by the extractive industries by 5.4 percent, the transportation, storage and communications sector by 4.3 percent, the manufacturing sector by 3.9 percent, wholesale and retail trade and the hospitality sector by 3.8 percent.
"It was very clear that there has been an improvement driven by some sectors ... the improvement in the economic activities was also reflected in international reports about Jordan's economy," Abeer Salameh, an economic analyst at the Jordan Press Foundation, told Xinhua recently.
"By the end of 2021, we will be able to better assess the improvement as the tourism sector has also experienced some progress compared to 2020," she added.
According to the World Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund, Jordan's economy is expected to grow by 2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Besides, Jordan's public revenue jumped by 1.21 billion Jordanian dinars (about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of 2021, driven by a 770-million-dinar increase in domestic revenue and a 437-million-dinar increase in foreign aid, according to official figures published by the state-run Petra news agency.
The country's deficit went down by 729 million dinars year on year by the end of July. Jordan's budget deficit stood at 522 million dinars at the end of July, due to improvement in local revenues.
Jordan's public debt stood at 27.19 billion dinars at the end of July, comprising 85.8 percent of the estimated GDP, the figures showed.
The country's foreign currency reserves increased during the January-August period of this year to 17.16 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 15.92 billion dollars at the end of last year, according to the statistics.
During the first half of this year, the country's total exports valued about 3.02 billion dinars, marking an increase of 19.6 percent, while imports totaled about 5.82 billion dinars, up by 22.3 percent.
"These are all positive indicators, but we still have some challenges," economist Hosam Ayesh said.
"Unemployment remains high, and it is expected that resuming trade with Syria will help create some jobs and further boost the economy," he added. Enditem
