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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Jordanian government and a team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a staff–level agreement on a request for a 36-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The approval of the EFF is expected to help catalyze loans and grants from multilateral and bilateral sources during the program period, in support of the Jordan Compact, agreed in the London Conference on February 2016, where donors pledged considerable financial support for Jordan to address the impact of Syrian refugees.

Jordan completed a three-year Stand-By Arrangement in the amount of about US$2 billion in August 2015.

The agreement aims to implement fiscal consolidation in a gradual and steady pace so that public debt is reduced from about 94 percent of GDP to about 77 percent of GDP by 2021, to minimize the impact on growth.

Finance Minister Omar Malhas said in a statement on Monday that in order to achieve this objective there is a need for both efforts and measures to enable the government to improve its resources, cut spending and increase growth.

"Before reaching the agreement with the IMF, the government wanted to ensure that any increase in revenues is in line with the Jordan Vision 2025 which was approved by Royal directives last year," he added.