‘Historic’ rise in Jordan’s foreign reserves reflect economic resilience-Economists

Rise of Jordan's foreign reserves to "record and historic" levels proves attractiveness and resilience of the national economy and its capability to counter crises and difficulties, economists said. According to official data, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ)'s foreign reserves reached a "new record" level of $19.1 billion now, which is enough to cover the Kingdom's imports of goods and services for 8.3 months. In remarks to "Petra Saturday, economists noted this rise reflects "success" of the Kingdom's economic reform policies, which are "moving in the right direction," adding that this policy strengthens investors' confidence in capability of the national economy to counter challenges and achieve "positive" results, in light of the region's changing circumstances and political tensions. Additionally, they added that maintaining "comfortable" levels of foreign reserves enhances Jordan's credit rating, help keep the dinar exchange rate, control inflation rates, boost performance of the Kingdom's banking sy stem and financial institutions, raise confidence in monetary policies and reduce the expected impact of external shocks. Commenting on the achievement, Former Minister of Finance and economic expert, Dr. Mohammad Abu Hammour, said foreign currency reserves are a "key" economic indicator that reflects the economy's strength, its capability to counter crises and fulfill obligations and reflect "prudence" of monetary policy and potential to keep pace with local and global changes. Meanwhile, Board of Directors of the Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) member, Musa Saket, said size of the reserve is an "important" indicator of the performance of the national economy. Saket stated that the reserve increases due to foreign grants, expatriates' remittances, increased spending by overseas tourists, and revenues of national exports of goods and services. For his part, member of Board of Directors of the Jordan Economic Forum (JEF) and investment and business advisor, Mohammad Qaryouti, said Jordan's foreign cash res erves reached $19.1 billion now, adding that this figure is "sufficient" to cover Jordan's imports of goods and services for a period of 8.3 months, which is one of the "highest" coverage rates in the world. Qaryouti added that the Kingdom's foreign reserves in 2019 stood at $14.3 billion, which grew by 34% in 6 years. Source: Jordan News Agency