CBJ maintains interest rates amid positive economic indicators

AMMAN — The Open Market Operations Committee of the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) on Thursday decided to maintain interest rates on monetary policy instruments unchanged.

The bank affirmed its commitment to closely monitor developments related to the national economy, particularly monetary and banking indicators, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The CBJ added that this decision aligns with a comprehensive review of geopolitical global and regional economic dynamics. 

The committee stressed its confidence in the national economy's performance as shown by the latest economic data, highlighting  that the CBJ's foreign reserves have reached $17.2 billion by the end of October, which is sufficient to cover the Kingdom's imports of goods and services for 7.6 months. 

The committee also underscored the increase in bank deposits (year-on-year) by JD1.3 billion, representing a growth of 4.6 per cent.

The CBJ also said that the tourism income increased by 30.5 per cent in the first eleven months of 2023, along with a JD6.3 million growth in the exports of national goods in the first three quarters of the year. Additionally, Jordanian expatriates' remittances also increased by 1.1 per cent to JD2 billion during the January-October period.

The CBJ's estimates indicate that foreign direct investment inflows to the Kingdom increased in the first half of 2023 reaching $776 million, a growth of 20.9 per cent.

The positive developments are evident in the rise in the national economy’s real growth rate to 2.7 per cent in the first six months of 2023, while the inflation rate went down to 2.1 per cent in the first eleven months of 2023.