High demand for dinar reported, and it is ‘just the beginning’

AMMAN – Money changers across the Kingdom have been reporting growing demand for the dinar driven by Jordanian expats and Arab visitors, a sector leader told The Jordan Times on Monday. 

Demand for the dinar surged sharply as of the beginning of last week mainly because of Jordanians working in the Gulf region, said President of the Jordanian Exchange Association Alaa Eddine Diraniyeh, who expected the strong demand for the local currency to continue over the coming two months. 

"Thousands of expats returned to the Kingdom for Eid Al Fitr holiday.  Money exchange shops across the country receive on a daily basis large numbers of customers who exchange currencies of the Gulf countries for dinar," Diraniyeh said. 

He said that demand for the dinar at this time of the year is stronger than it was last year. 

The same trend was witnessed in Ramadan and during Eid Al Fitr holiday and such performance is expected to continue until Eid Al Adha, slated to be observed in the first half of September, he added, indicating that larger numbers of tourists from the Gulf region, mainly Saudi Arabia, are expected to start arriving in the Kingdom for summer vacations in the coming days.

"The tourist season in Jordan has not started yet," said Diraniyeh. 

Samir Al Theeb, a Jordanian engineer based in Saudi Arabia, said he went to a money changer in Irbid but could not exchange all the riyals he had for dinars. 

"The shop was packed with customers and the teller told me I would only be able to have JD100 that day because of shortage in the company's dinar reserves caused by sharp demand. But the next day I exchanged what I needed," he said. 

Diraniyeh said that some exchange companies received large number of customers who wanted dinar for Eid shopping and buying gifts.