Gov’t to think out-of-the-box as IMF sets conditions for deal

AMMAN – Talks between Jordan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) are in final stages, government officials said Sunday during a meeting with the chief editors of daily newspapers and columnists, attended by Prime Minister Hani Mulki. 

Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Jawad Anani said the previous government of Abdullah Ensour has almost completed most of the negotiations with the IMF on the new economic reform programme, which he said is targeting to reduce the public debt ratio to the gross domestic product from its current level of 93 per cent to around 77 per cent by 2021. 

Anani said the government will work on raising revenues as requested by the Washington-based fund, but with a focus on stimulating economic growth through promoting investment opportunities to create more jobs for Jordanians. 

The government expects talks over the new IMF supported programme to conclude in July. 

Minister of Finance Omar Malhas said the objectives of EFF aim at maintaining macroeconomic stability and to accelerate growth, adding it would address rising debt and budget deficit. 

He noted that the IMF has placed six conditions. 

The first condition he said is that the IMF requested the government to keep the debt ratio by the end of 2016 the same as that registered by the end of 2015, adding that the second one entails establishing a public investment unit to review the government priority projects. 

The third condition requests the Finance Ministry to publish all final accounts of the central government and the independent public agencies, while the fourth is about establishing a macro fiscal unit to be like a data bank for all information the IMF and the government would require. The unit is expected to provide reliable and relevant analysis on fiscal and macroeconomic issues, the minister said.

The fifth point is to draft a quarterly plan for financing needs of the government, while the sixth and last entails controlling the losses of the state-owned National Electric Power Company. 

Malhas said the government and the IMF are still discussing the first point related to public debt ratio to GDP. 

Mulki said the government would not work on addressing financial problems through putting further burdens on citizens as the government would look for “creative” solutions to boost the economy and raise revenues. 

“The economy needed urgent surgeries for years but we kept saying it may recover, but it has not,” he added.