Trade deficit down by 8.8% in first half

AMMAN — The trade deficit in the first half of 2019 went down by 8.8 per cent, compared with the same period of 2018, the Department of Statistics (DoS) said on Sunday.

The DoS attributed this decrease to a 4.5 per cent rise in national exports in the January-June period of 2019, compared to the same period of the year before, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

DoS figures showed that the value of national exports in the first six months of 2019 totalled JD2.257 billion. On the other hand, the Kingdom’s imports in the first half of 2019 amounted to JD6.597 billion, down by 3.8 per cent when compared to the same period of 2018, according to the DoS data.