Ammon News -
The Open Market Operations Committee of the Central Bank of Jordan decided to raise interest rates on all monetary policy instruments of the bank by 75 basis points, as of Sunday 25/9/2022.

This decision is in line with the Central Bank's goal of maintaining monetary stability in the Kingdom.
The decision also comes in light of the persistence and expansion of external inflationary pressures, their impact on domestic inflation rates, and the conditions of uncertainty generated by the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war and geopolitical risks.

In the interest of the Central Bank of the importance of achieving a balance between the goal of maintaining monetary stability, continuing to stimulate economic growth and mitigating the impact of raising interest rates on economic sectors, the committee decided the following:

Continuing to fix the preferential interest rates for the Central Bank’s program to refinance the vital economic sectors, numbering ten sectors, amounting to 1.3 billion dinars, at 1.0% for beneficiary projects within the capital governorate, and 0.5% for projects in the rest of the governorates, and their stability throughout the period of the loan that it extends for ten years.

Extending the work of the Central Bank’s program to support small and medium-sized companies, professionals, craftsmen and importers of the wholesale sector of basic commodities, amounting to 700 million dinars, until the end of this year, while maintaining the interest rate for borrowers within this program at its current level, not exceeding 2%, and for a period of 54 months, including a grace period of up to 12 months from the date the funding was granted.

It is noteworthy that the Central Bank, through these two programs, has financed about 7,825 projects, with a value of about 1,824.9 million dinars.

Data for the available period of this year indicate that foreign reserves with the Central Bank amounted to 16.8 billion dollars, enough to cover 8.7 months of the Kingdom's imports of goods and services.

Many economic indicators have also achieved positive performance during the available period of the current year, especially those related to the external sector, especially tourism income, which rose during the first eight months of this year to $3.6 billion.

The Central Bank will continue to comprehensively monitor all monetary, banking and economic developments, locally, regionally and internationally, and will evaluate the impact of its decisions on inflation expectations and macroeconomic developments in the medium term, taking into account its previous decisions to raise interest rates.