Public debt to GDP ratio up in first 8 months

AMMAN — The total public debt at the end of last August amounted to JD28.364 billion, constituting 96.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared with JD27.269 billion, constituting 95.9 per cent of the GDP in 2017.

The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that the budget deficit before external grants amounted to about JD973 million during the first eight months of 2018, compared with a deficit of about JD807.3 million during the same period of 2017, noting that the government is working to achieve the deficit estimated in the law of the general budget of about JD523 million.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s after-grant general budget deficit amounted to JD782.3 million at the end of last August, compared with JD648.5 million for the same period of 2017.