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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan’s tourism revenue edged down 10.7 percent in the first quarter of 2020 at JD784 million overshadowed by the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing lockdown and travel ban at the national and global levels.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic in the Kingdom in early March, returns from tourism grew by 13.6 percent in January and February, according to data by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ).

But in March, tourism income plummeted by 56.5 percent, the figures released Monday showed. The CBJ expects that tourism figures will continue their downhill trajectory in the first seven months of the current year.

However, the bank forecasts a gradual improvement in the last quarter of the year under the premise that the pandemic is contained and the epidemiological situation will improve.

Furthermore, remittances by Jordanian expatriates abroad inched down by 5.4 per cent in the first three months of the current year to JD600 million, according to the figures.

The CBJ also said that it expects the current account deficit in the January-March period to remain near the figure recorded in the same period last year.

The bank described the Kingdom's foreign reserves as "comfortable and at internationally acceptable levels", indicating that they amounted to $14.3 billion by the end of March. It noted that the figure can cover the Kingdom's imports of merchandise and services for 7.9 months.