CBJ maintains interest rates unchanged

Amman: During its 5th meeting this year, the Open Market Operations Committee at the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) on Thursday decided to keep interest rates on monetary policy instruments unchanged, and discussed the Kingdom's economic and monetary developments. The CBJ's foreign reserves maintained their high levels of $18.9 billion, which is enough to cover the Kingdom's imports of goods and services for 8.2 months, as the latest indicators of financial resilience at the end of 2023 showed. Reflecting the Kingdom's operating banks' "strength, liquidity and resilience," the data revealed that the inflation rate "stabilized" during the first half of the year at "acceptable" rates appropriate for economic activity, reaching 1.7%, compared to 3% for the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, the gross domestic product (GDP) recorded a growth of 2% during the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, while Jordan's tourism income declined by 4.9% during the first half of 2024 at $3.3 billion , the figures revealed. The data also showed an increase in Jordanian expatriate workers' remittances during the first five months of 2024 by 3.7% to reach $1.5 billion. In a statement, the CBJ stresses its "continuous and diligent" follow-up of local, regional and global economic and monetary developments, measures of central banks regionally and internationally and their repercussions on the national economy. Source: Jordan News Agency