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Ammon News - Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Maha Ali said Tuesday that the ministry is keen to boost partnership with the private sector and civil society institutions, including think tanks, to tackle matters to develop the economy, achieve recovery and address the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.

She told a session held by the Jordan Strategy Forum (JSF) on containing COVID-19: the health response and continuation of the economy, that her ministry's goal is to increase growth rates and tackle the problems of poverty and unemployment.

Ali noted the latest government measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, which were part of the social protection program targeting certain sectors and individuals, stressing that the government's approach focused on balancing the health requirements and minimizing damage to the economy resulting from recurrent lockdowns.

For his part, Deputy Premier, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Umayya Toukan told the meeting that the financial packages and monetary policies announced by the government at the start of the crisis had largely helped to mitigate economic contraction in Jordan, when compared with other countries.

The procedures in place and prompt response to the pandemic in the past period, along with enhancing the health sector, had helped boost the sector's infrastructure through establishing field hospitals and increasing medical staff.

Also addressing the meeting, JSF CEO Ibrahim Saif detailed a study on the epidemiological situation and the continuity of the economy that the forum will publish soon, noting that most sectors in Jordan saw severe contraction in the second quarter of the year, with the exception of financial, insurance and business services, which contracted by 2.8 per cent, real estate services by 0.6 per cent and the agricultural sector by 0.7 per cent.

Saif explained that the Kingdom's early control of the pandemic had helped spur the economy in the last two months of the second quarter despite the acute recession, and the impact on real GDP was less than in other countries despite their fiscal space, which showed the prudence of the monetary and fiscal policies in place.