Budget deficit down during first third of year

AMMAN — The public budget deficit after grants has dropped to JD303.7 million by the end of April, compared with JD377.8 million during the same period of last year. 

According to the Finance Ministry’s monthly bulletin, the budget deficit before grants this year had decreased to JD388.3 million, compared with JD451.9 million during the same period of 2018, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The bulletin added that after grants, the budget deficit is expected to amount to JD645.6 million by the end of the year, according to the Budget Law’s estimations.

Meanwhile, domestic revenues increased by JD93 million by the end of April, reaching JD2.4826 billion, compared with JD2.3896 billion last year. 

External grants amounted to JD84.6 million by the end of April, compared with 2018’s JD74.1 million for the same period.

Expenditure stood at around JD2.871 billion by the end of April, 2019, compared with some JD2.842 billion during the same period of 2018. 

Meanwhile, the public debt stood at 28,956 billion, which constitutes 94.4 per cent of the estimated GDP for the end of April, compared with JD28,308 billion that constituted the same value of the GDP during the same period of 2018.