Investors’ confidence rises in November

AMMAN — The Jordan Investor Confidence Index continued to recover in November 2016, reaching 91.75 points in comparison with 89.45 points in October. 

The monthly-issued index, published by the Jordan Strategy Forum, measures the confidence of investors operating in the Jordanian market, according to a statement of the forum.

The index measures confidence in the Jordanian currency and monetary system, the real economy, and the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE).

According to the forum, confidence in the monetary system sub-index decreased to 87.90 points for November. 

Despite an increase in the Central Bank of Jordan’s gross foreign reserves, the monetary system sub-index remained below its expected point for this month, reaching its lowest since the beginning of the year.   

However; confidence in the real economy sub-index reached its highest since the beginning of 2016 with 109.61 points, an increase of 1.95 points from October. 

The number of registered companies went down to 670 companies in November from 828 in the previous month. However, the capital of these registered companies increased to reach JD8.7 million compared to JD7.8 million in October.

Furthermore, the number of construction permits rose significantly in November to 3,442 from 2,904 — the highest number reached this year.

This was coupled with an increase in the tax on the monthly real estate volume to reach JD10.6 million from JD10.2 million in October. 

The manufacturing quantity production index, however, decreased to reach 96.5 points from 101.9 in October.

Moreover, the confidence in the ASE continued to recover from the decrease it witnessed in September to reach 94.23 points, according to the forum. The ratio of inflow to outflow of foreign investment in the ASE remained at a high level despite the slight decrease it had witnessed from 156 per cent to 151 per cent.

The ASE index went up by 63.4 points to 2170.98 in November.