Economy of Jordan

Economy of Jordan

New Abdali in Amman
Currency	Jordanian dinar (JOD)
Fiscal year	Calendar Year
Trade organisations	WTO, CAEU, G77
Country group	Developing/Emerging[1] Lower-middle income economy[2]
Statistics
GDP	$53.57 billion (nominal, 2024 est.)[3] $141.191 billion (PPP, 2024 est.)[3]
GDP rank	91st (nominal, 2024) 91st (PPP, 2024)
GDP growth	2.4% (2022) 2.6% (2023e) 2.6% (2024f) 3.0% (2025f)
GDP per capita	$4,705 (nominal, 2024 est.)[3] $12,402 (PPP, 2024 est.)[3]
GDP per capita rank	117th (nominal, 2024) 112th (PPP, 2024)
GDP by sector	agriculture: 4.5% industry: 28.8% services: 66.6% (2017 est.)[4]
Inflation (CPI)	4.224% (2022)[3]
Population below poverty line	14.4% (2010, World Bank)[5] 18.1% on less than $5.50/day (2010)[6]
Gini coefficient	35.4 medium (2013)[7]
Human Development Index	0.736 high (2024)[8] (99th) 0.617 medium IHDI (2021)[9]
Labour force	2,631,115 (2019)[10] 32.1% employment rate (2014)[11]
Labour force by occupation	agriculture: 2% industry: 20% services: 78% (2013 est.)[4]
Unemployment	18.3% (2017 est.)[4] note: official rate; unofficial rate is approximately 30%
Main industries	tourism, information technology, clothing, fertilizer, potash, phosphate mining, pharmaceuticals, petroleum refining, cement, inorganic chemicals, light manufacturing
External
Exports	$7.511 billion (2017 est.)[4]
Export goods	textiles, fertilizers, potash, phosphates, vegetables, pharmaceuticals
Main export partners	United States 26%  India 13.1%  Saudi Arabia 10.7%  Iraq 5.11% (2021)[12]
Imports	$18.21 billion (2017 est.)[4]
Import goods	crude oil, refined petroleum products, machinery, transport equipment, iron, cereals
Main import partners	China 17%  Saudi Arabia 13.8%  United Arab Emirates 10.9%  United States 5.31% (2021)[12]
FDI stock	$33.83 billion (31 December 2017 est.)[4] Abroad: $646.5 million (31 December 2017 est.)[4]
Current account	−$4.257 billion (2017 est.)[4]
Gross external debt	$29.34 billion (31 December 2017 est.)[4]
Public finances
Government debt	95.9% of GDP (2017 est.)[4][notes 1]
Budget balance	−5.1% (of GDP) (2017 est.)[4]
Revenues	9.462 billion (2017 est.)[4]
Expenses	11.51 billion (2017 est.)[4]
Credit rating	Standard & Poor's:[13] BB+ (Domestic) BB (Foreign) BBB- (T&C Assessment) Outlook: Negative[14] Moody's:[14] Ba2 Outlook: Negative
Foreign reserves	$15.56 billion (31 December 2017 est.)[4]
Main data source: CIA World Fact Book All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

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The economy of Jordan is classified as an emerging market economy. Jordan's GDP per capita rose by 351% in the 1970s, declined 30% in the 1980s, and rose 36% in the 1990s.^[15] After King Abdullah II's accession to the throne in 1999, liberal economic policies were introduced. Jordan's economy had been growing at an annual rate of 8% between 1999 and 2008. However, growth has slowed to 2% after the Arab Spring in 2011. The substantial increase of the population, coupled with slowed economic growth and rising public debt led to a worsening of poverty and unemployment in the country. As of 2019, Jordan has a GDP of US$44.4 billion, ranking it 89th worldwide.^[16]

Jordan has Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the United States, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, the European Union, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Turkey^[17] and Syria. More FTA's are planned with Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the GCC, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Jordan is a member of the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement, the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area, the Agadir Agreement, and also enjoys advanced status with the EU.^[18]

Jordan's economic resource base centers on phosphates, potash, and their fertilizer derivatives; tourism; overseas remittances; and foreign aid. These are its principal sources of hard currency earnings. Lacking coal reserves, hydroelectric power, large tracts of forest or commercially viable oil deposits, Jordan relies on natural gas for 93% of its domestic energy needs. Jordan used to depend on Iraq for oil until the American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Jordan also has a plethora of industrial zones producing goods in the textile, aerospace, defense, ICT, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic sectors. Jordan is an emerging knowledge economy.

The main obstacles to Jordan's economy are scarce water supplies, complete reliance on oil imports for energy, and regional instability. Just over 10% of its land is arable and the water supply is limited. Rainfall is low and highly variable, and much of Jordan's available ground water is not renewable.

In the last few years Jordan's economic growth has slowed, averaging around 2%. Jordan's total foreign debt in 2011 was $19 billion, representing 60% of its GDP. In 2016, the debt reached $35.1 billion representing 93.4% of its GDP.^[19] This substantial increase is attributed to effects of regional instability causing: decrease in tourist activity; decreased foreign investments; increased military expenditure; attacks on Egyptian pipeline supplying the Kingdom with gas; the collapse of trade with Iraq and Syria; expenses from hosting Syrian refugees and accumulated interests from loans.^[19] According to the World Bank, Syrian refugees have cost Jordan more than $2.5 billion a year, amounting to 6% of the GDP and 25% of the government's annual revenue.^[20] With the presence of Syrian refugees in Jordan, wage growth went considerably down as a result of competition for jobs between refugees and Jordan citizens. The downturn that began in 2011, continued until 2018. The country's top five contributing sectors to GDP, government services, finance, manufacturing, transport, and tourism and hospitality were badly impacted by the Syrian civil war.^[21] Foreign aid covers only a small part of these costs, 63% of the total costs are covered by Jordan.^[22] An austerity programme was adopted by the government which aims to reduce Jordan's debt-to-GDP ratio to 77% by 2021.^[23] The programme succeeded in preventing the debt from rising above 95% in 2018.^[24] The yearly growth rate of the economy was 2% from 2016 to 2019, compared to 6.4% from 2000 to 2009.^[25]

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