Details of $1 billion World Bank loan to be discussed next week

AMMAN — Jordan and the World Bank will start discussions next week over a $1-billion concessional loan to the Kingdom to support fiscal reform, the government said on Sunday.

“Next week, we will engage in talks with the World Bank to discuss details of the concessional loan,” Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mary Kawar told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

The soft loan is likely to be approved by the World Bank’s board meeting in June, the minister said.

“We expect to sign the loan, which will be used for supporting our reforms, in June,” the minister added.

She noted that the loan’s interest rate will be less than 4 per cent.

In February, Kristalina Georgieva, interim president of the World Bank Group and chief executive officer of the World Bank, told The Jordan Times that the bank will provide $1.9 billion in financial support to Jordan over the next two years, almost as much as it has provided to the country over the last five years.

On the sidelines of the London initiative, which was hosted by the UK in February to drum up international support for Jordan, Georgieva said that the assistance package includes a development policy loan for Jordan that would be approximately $1 billion, in addition to two loan guarantees; one from Saudi Arabia of $200 million and another from the UK of $250 million.

Of the remaining amount, there is a $100-million loan, a highly concessional one that is “close to a grant”.

The remaining sum would finance a project for which discussions are under way with Jordan to determine the targeted areas, according to the World Bank official.