Good, but how good?

The International Monetary Fund recently gave Jordan’s economy a clean bill of health.

The fund is projecting that the country’s economic growth in 2014 will be about 3.5 per cent, a slight increase over the 3 per cent last year, and that the inflation rate would drop to about 2.5 per cent in 2014 from 3 per cent in 2013.

The IMF has given full credit for the economic discipline and progress to the sound government policies that involved reining in expenditure, introducing a series of austerity measures and lifting subsidies on energy.

The fund, however, is sounding the alarm over the high unemployment rate, which hovers around 12.6 per cent despite the steps taken by the government over the past two years.

The IMF’s assessment of the situation leads one to the conclusion that despite the severe hardships Jordanians encountered over the past few years, the government must have been doing the right thing to put the country’s economy on the right course.

This said, it must be pointed out that the IMF guidelines for economic development often contradict recommendations by ILO and international human rights agencies, including the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) to state parties, especially with regard to restrictions on the type of austerity measures that nations apply and the need to focus on combating unemployment in all economic policies and practices introduced by countries.

Jordan’s periodic report to CESCR will be soon considered, and only then will we know whether it took the right course in meeting its obligations under international conventions and treaties.