Dr. Hamad Kasasbeh

The hardest thing about economics is that reality does not flatter anyone. Numbers can be polished, indicators selectively highlighted, and promises presented in their best possible light, but the labour market, incomes, investment, and living standards remain the real test. Exaggerating achievement does not always require a false number; sometimes it is enough to present half the truth, or to portray an expectation as though it has already been realised, widening the gap between the public image and the actual outcome.

From there, it is easy to speak of numerous projects, large investments, anticipated job opportunities, and successive programmes and agreements. Such information may be accurate in itself, but it does not become a complete economic achievement merely because it has been announced. A launched project is not necessarily a completed project; a signed investment agreement is not necessarily investment that has entered production; and an expected job is not a job that actually exists. The distance between announcement and result must remain visible.

Exaggeration may also appear through the selective use of indicators. GDP may rise while real income per person remains under pressure; exports may increase while domestic value added remains limited; and the number of registered companies may grow while only a portion becomes productive and sustainable. A number may be correct, yet the picture it creates becomes incomplete when it is detached from the context that gives it meaning.

The same applies to carefully chosen comparisons. Selecting a weak year as the starting point can make later performance look stronger than it really is, while cumulative figures may create the impression that the results of several years were achieved in a much shorter period. Likewise, a high growth rate from a small base does not necessarily amount to a broad economic transformation. A percentage alone is never enough; we must know where we started, what we are comparing against, and what actually changed.

If numbers need context, activity itself also needs a clear standard before it can be called an achievement. Meetings, plans, platforms, and signed agreements may reflect genuine effort, but they are not economic results in themselves. Achievement begins when a company expands, an investment enters production, exports rise with greater local value added, stable jobs are created, or productivity and incomes improve. Anything short of that remains a step along the way, not proof that the destination has been reached.

Of course, reforms and major projects need time, but time should not become an open-ended justification for postponing results. As the years pass, old promises must gradually move from the category of ‘expected’ to that of ‘achieved’. Sometimes exaggeration also happens by proxy, when parts of the press or social media amplify an achievement or turn an expectation into an accomplished fact, widening the gap between the original information and the image that ultimately reaches the public.

At that point, the real test moves away from the narrative itself and closer to people’s lives. If achievements are truly as large as they are presented, then after a reasonable period their effects should appear in job opportunities, real incomes, productive investment, the ability of companies to expand, and household living standards. Not every indicator needs to improve at once, but there should be a clear direction linking what citizens hear to what they actually experience.

Even so, the answer is not to turn economic communication into pessimism or to deny genuine progress. Any economic administration has the right to present what it has achieved and to offer positive expectations for the future. But there is a clear difference between optimism grounded in a measurable path and an image that runs ahead of reality. Hope becomes more convincing when supported by evidence, and achievement commands greater respect when it is presented at its true scale, without exaggeration or understatement.

In the end, people do not need a perfect picture as much as they need a candid message that respects their intelligence and daily experience. Citizens may accept difficult conditions, slow growth, and a long road to reform, and they may even accept that their living standards will not improve as quickly as they hope; but they are far more likely to accept this when reality is stated plainly. Honesty does not raise incomes overnight, and candour does not create a job in a single day, but both preserve trust.
Once trust is lost, even accurate numbers become suspect. Exaggeration therefore has a short life... and in economics, an even shorter one, because reality reaches people before explanations do.