Malhas expects final agreement with IMF in July

AMMAN — Finance Minister Omar Malhas on Saturday said negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are still ongoing over the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) that would allow the Kingdom to access hundreds of millions of dollars. 

In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Malhas said the final form of the new IMF-supported programme is expected to be announced in July after being studied by the government and the top management of the Washington-based international financial organisation. 

He noted that an IMF mission visited the Kingdom last week and held several meetings with officials at the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Jordan on the 2016-2019 economic reform programme, adding that members of the mission also held talks with officials from other ministries and government departments in addition to private sector entities. 

The minister said a shared vision was reached on several issues that include structural reforms in the labour market with the aim of increasing employment and enhancing the business environment and attracting investments.

The government and the IMF, he said, also agreed on the need to maintain financial and monetary stability through a gradual annual reduction in the public debt ratio to the gross domestic product (GDP), to go down from its current level of 93 per cent of the GDP to 77 per cent of the GDP in the coming five years. 

The minister added that an agreement was also reached to enable the state-run National Electric Power Company to maintain a stable financial situation in order to avoid more losses and reduce the JD5.5 billion loans it borrowed over the past years.