Ammon News - Jihad Azour, the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department of the International Monetary Fund, said during a press conference on the prospects for the regional economy of the Middle East and central Asia, that the crisis that hit the region as a result of the economic slowdown due to the rise in energy and food prices, as well as the tightening of monetary policy as a result of raising interest rates.

During his talk about developments in the countries of the region, he touched on Jordan's relationship with the Fund and praised the success of the program that Jordan designed in 2020, which one of its goals was to reduce the impact of successive economic crises on Jordan's economy, including increasing Jordan's ability to confront the Corona crisis by giving Jordan more financial flexibility.

He also praised Jordan's ability to implement a set of important financial, monetary and structural reforms that allowed Jordan to maintain macroeconomic stability, which allowed Jordanians to maintain investor confidence and control inflation, despite severe external shocks and challenges facing the Jordanian economy like other economies in the region as a result of the economic crises that the whole world is going through.

Azour added, that the Covid crisis has had severe effects on the Jordanian economy, as is the case in the region, the most important of which was the increase in unemployment, and many factors that would reduce unemployment were discussed, such as implementing more structural reforms and reducing energy and labor costs in order to increase the competitiveness of the sector The private. He indicated that one of the most important factors that can help reduce unemployment is increasing investment and enhancing Jordan's competitiveness to increase growth and create more job opportunities.