Most welcome news

There is some bright and encouraging news about the national economy, especially in the real estate, tourism and export sectors, on the horizon.

Finance Minister Ezzeddine Kanakrieh disclosed on Saturday during an in-house meeting for the senior staff at his ministry that Jordan's GDP jumped by 2 per cent during the first quarter of 2019 compared with 1.9 per cent during the same period last year.

This improvement may not sound a lot but for Jordan, any growth in the right direction is most welcome news. What counts is not only the amount of the growth, but also its direction. Now it seems, at last, that the country is doing the right thing by channelling its national economy in the right direction.

Tourism and exports are the main locomotives for the uplift of the national economy, albeit not by spectacular rates yet. The real estate sector, the minister confirmed, also witnessed a noticeable improvement, albeit not by a whole lot, having registered a 17 per cent growth in land sales and 3 per cent in apartments sales in the month of June.

Again, while these improvements remain modest, it is their direction which counts most, as they suggest a sudden rise after a prolonged stagnation.

The government, it will be recalled, adopted of late a series of measures to put life into the real estate sector, and it seems that these promotional steps have resulted in noticeable growth. It is obviously too early to draw any conclusions, but all indicators up to now suggest that the national economy is finally on the right track and may have turned the corner after all for better tidings in the future.

Now the government needs to know if the modest uplift in some sectors of the economy can be sustained for longer periods. All sectors of the economy experience cyclical changes for the better or the worse during a certain time frame. For the time being, the indicators are positive.

There is every hope that the national economy will continue to grow gradually, even at modest rates, until it reaches the level required for sustainable growth. The people cannot expect miracles yet, but they know the government is trying its best under difficult conditions. That is what counts most!