Kingdom’s average monthly salary stands at $637 — report

AMMAN – Jordan ranked 65th globally in terms of the average net salary, with the monthly income standing at around $637, according to Numbeo, a database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. 

According to Numbeo’s latest statistics, Jordan ranked 12th in the average monthly salary among the Western Asian region, followed by Turkey ($575), Armenia ($303), Georgia ($270), Azerbaijan ($250) and Syria ($94). 

The report showed that only five Arab countries have an average monthly net salary lower than Jordan, namely  Morocco ($402), Algeria ($295), Tunisia ($286), Egypt ($161) and Syria ($94). 

Gulf countries claimed the top spots in the Arab region in terms of highest monthly pay, reaching an average of $3,000. 

The UAE ranked first with a monthly salary of around $3,260, followed by Qatar ($2,941) and Kuwait ($1,923), Numbeo statistics showed. 

The figures also estimated the monthly expense for a single person in Jordan at $676 and $2,468 for a family of four members, excluding rent. 

According to a report issued by The Economist Intelligence Unit last month, Amman, along with Milan, ranked 29th internationally in the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017, which also ranked the Jordanian capital as the most expensive Arab city to live in.

The report is based on a cost-of-living survey, which compares the prices of 160 goods and services in 133 cities around the world.

On the same list, Abu Dhabi and Dubai ranked 62 and Bahrain 86, while Cairo, Doha and Kuwait City ranked 99.

Singapore ranked the world’s most expensive city, followed by Hong Kong and Zurich (Switzerland), while Japanese cities Tokyo and Osaka came fourth and fifth on the global scale, according to survey results published by The Economist.

Meanwhile, coming at the bottom of the list, the world’s least expensive city is Almaty (Kazakhstan), preceded by Lagos (Nigeria), Bangalore (India) and Karachi (Pakistan), according to the report.

The Economist observed that Asia hosts five out of the six most expensive cities in the world, while there is a gradual drop in the rankings for European cities, which made up eight of the 10 most expensive places a decade ago, while now they account for only four.