Jordan’s GDP grew by 2% during 1st quarter 2024…1st add

The government debt balance, after excluding loans to the Social Security Investment Fund (SSIF), amounted to JD32.537 billion, or 89.1% of the gross domestic product for the month of March 2024, compared to 89.5% at the end of 2023, the latest economic data showed. A total of 7.6 billion securities were registered with the Securities Depository Center of Jordan (SDC) last June with a total value of 18.6 billion. Meanwhile, a total of 3,028 companies were registered in the first half of the current year, up by 5% over the same period in 2023, including 2,188 limited liability firms, representing 72.2% of registered companies, with registered capital exceeding JD48.3 million. According to the data, the Kingdom's tourism income amounted to $2.6 billion during the first five months of the current year, down by 6.5%, compared to the corresponding period in 2023, due to a 10% decline in the number of tourists. Additionally, inflation rose by 1.65% during the first five months of the current year. As for the u nemployment rate in the Kingdom, figures showed its drop in the first quarter of this year by 0.5%, compared to the first quarter of last year, and remained "stable," against the last quarter of last year, recording 21.4%. The value of total exports in the first third of the current year amounted to about JD2.748 billion, compared to JD2.872 billion for the same period last year, marking a decrease of 4.3%, the data revealed. Also in the first third of this year, the value of national exports amounted to about JD2.488 billion, compared to JD2.682 billion for the same period last year, recording a decrease of 7.2%. The value of the Kingdom's imports surged in the first third of the current year by 0.1% to reach JD5.818 billion, compared to JD5.813 billion for the same period last year. Accordingly, the deficit in the Kingdom's trade balance in the first third of this year amounted to about JD3.070 billion, compared to JD2.941 billion for the same period last year, constituting an increase of 4.4%. The Cen tral Bank of Jordan (CBJ)'s foreign reserves maintained their "high" levels of $18.8 billion, which are sufficient to cover the Kingdom's imports of goods and services for 8.2 months, the figures showed. Source: Jordan News Agency