Central bank ups interest rates by 25 basis points

AMMAN — The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) decided on Thursday to increase the interest rates on its various monetary policy instruments by 25 basis points, effective Sunday, December 17, a CBJ statement said.

The decision was meant to “maintain the monetary and financial stability of the Kingdom and promote the competitiveness of the Jordanian dinar denominated-assets by maintaining the interest rate structure at an appropriate level, consistent with the recent trends and developments in the global and regional interest rates”, the bank explained.

The statement added that the raise will not affect the refinancing rates applied on the CBJ’s refinancing programme, which targets priority and productive industries, including small and medium enterprises. 

The programme applies to the sectors of manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, renewable energy, engineering consultants and information technology. 

The CBJ decided to keep constant the refinancing rates at its prior levels of 1.75 per cent for projects located in Amman governorate and 1 per cent for projects located in other governorates. It also decided to maintain constant the maximum maturities of 10 years on the refinancing programme of the CBJ. According to the statement, the volume of the advances granted within the programme has reached JD458 million, while the available funding under this programme is currently estimated at JD1.1 billion.