Ammon News -

The Central Bank of Jordan on Thursday raised all its monetary policy rates by 25 basis points, effective March 20, 2022, citing inflationary pressures and global geopolitical uncertainty.

In a statement, the bank's Open Operations Market Committee said the move aims to "contain potential inflationary pressures driven by rising global inflation rates due to a gradual post-Covid recovery, and the accompanying disruption in supply chains."

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CBJ rolled out an exceptionally accommodative monetary policy. In March 2020, the bank cut interest rates by 150 basis points, bringing the main interest rate of the central bank to 2.5 percent, the lowest in 10 years. 

Foreign reserves at the CBJ currently amount to $18.0 billion, enough to cover the Kingdom's imports of goods and services for a period of 9.4 months.

According to official statistics, the inflation rate reached 2.2 percent during the first two months of 2022. Tourism income also increased during the first two months of this year by 196.5 percent.