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AMMAN – Independent public institutions final accounts, issued at the end of May, revealed a net deficit of JD238 million that was offset through internal and external borrowing. 

The final accounts covered 59 independent public institutions that are financially independent, according to Ministry of Finance Secretary General Ezzeddin Kanakrieh.

Some of the institutions’ final accounts revealed a surplus of JD232 million, which were transferred to the Treasury, while some others showed a deficit, bringing the net financial deficit to around JD238 million, he said.

Independent government entities that registered a surplus included the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and the Free Zones Corporation whereas those recording a deficit, included the National Electric Power Company and the Water Authority of Jordan.

Moreover, the government extended financial support to some institutions, such as the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, the National Aid Fund and the Vocational Training Corporation, Kanakrieh indicated, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The institutions’ final account figures are available on the ministry’s website in detail, he added. 

For the second consecutive year, the final accounts were issued one month ahead of the deadline stipulated in the Constitution, Finance Minister Omar Malhas said, underscoring the ministry’s transparency.

VIENNA – Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to flood the oil market with extra barrels even as OPEC failed to agree on output policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise production steeply.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shiite Islamic republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.

Tensions, however, were less acute on Thursday as Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khalid Al Falih, showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and his Iranian peer Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to an unusual minimum.

In a rare compromise, OPEC also decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary general after years of friction over the issue.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose OPEC set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair the group's waning importance. But Thursday's meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran.

Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters.

"There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production.

The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze — aimed at stabilising oil markets — in April in the Qatari capital of Doha. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas, effectively abandoned by OPEC years ago.

"Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota — based on historic output levels — of 14.5 per cent of OPEC's overall production.

OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd — well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages. On Thursday, Brent prices eased 1.5 per cent to $49 per barrel.

That OPEC could not agree on a benign deal is a sign that political differences are undermining the organisation, said Gary Ross, founder of US-based PIRA consultancy.

"It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market," Ross added.

Zanganeh made a few conciliatory remarks, saying he was happy with the meeting and received no signals from other producers that they planned to increase output.

For Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects, who like Ross travelled to Vienna to meet OPEC officials, the meeting sent an encouraging signal about the state of the organisation.

"After the Doha debacle, it actually restores market confidence that Saudi Arabia is committed to OPEC. This is a success compared to three days ago when people had been expecting Falih to walk out of the OPEC room," said Sen.

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

"There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations — such as long-term growth of marginal barrels — in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.

GENEVA — Just like Hannibal in ancient times, Swiss engineers have conquered the Alps.

More than 2,200 years after the commander from the ancient North African civilisation of Carthage led his army of elephants and troops over Europe's highest mountain chain, the Swiss have completed another gargantuan task: Burrowing the world's longest railway tunnel under the Swiss Alps to improve European trade and travel.

European dignitaries on Wednesday inaugurated the 57km Gotthard Railway Tunnel, a major engineering achievement deep under the Alps' snow-capped peaks. It took 17 years to build at a cost of 12.2 billion Swiss francs ($12 billion) — but workers kept to a key Swiss tradition and brought the massive project in on time and on budget.

Many tunnels crisscross the Swiss Alps. The Gotthard Pass itself already has two — the first, also for trains, was built in 1882. But the Gotthard base tunnel is a record-setter eclipsing Japan's 53.8km Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest — and it also bores deeper than any other tunnel, running about 2.3 km underground at its maximum depth.

The tube bores through the Gotthard massif that includes the 2,500-metre Piz Vatgira on the way to Italy. It is part of a broader, multi-tunnel project to shift the haulage of goods from roads to rails amid concerns that heavy trucks are destroying Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.

The tunnel's impact will be felt across Europe for decades.

The thoroughfare aims to cut travel times, ease roadway traffic and reduce the air pollution spewed from trucks travelling between Europe's north and south. Set to open for commercial service in December, the two-way tunnel can handle up to 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains per day.

Swiss planners have dreamt of such a tunnel for decades, and Gotthard's 17 years of construction don't include the many years spent to scope out suitable paths.

Switzerland pulled out all the stops for Wednesday's inauguration. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi all came to southern Switzerland for an upbeat, glitzy celebration featuring musical bands, dancers and even a theme song for the tunnel.

Under purple neon lights, performers dressed in orange miners' suits and protective helmets danced atop a moving rail car, while others in skimpy outfits feigned wrestling and trapese artists hung from chains or ropes.

The tunnel runs between the German-speaking Swiss town of Erstfeld in the north to the Italian-speaking town of Bodio in the south, cutting through central Switzerland. The tunnel journey takes about 20 minutes for passenger trains.

Split-screen TV images Wednesday showed two trains in opposite directions entering and leaving the tunnel entrances nearly simultaneously.

The project, funded in part by Swiss taxpayers and fees on trucks, received financial support and industrial know-how from around the European Union. Although Switzerland isn't one of the bloc's 28 members, the EU railway network gets a big boost from this shortcut through the Alps, notably on the route from Germany to Italy.

"The new tunnel fits into the European railway freight corridor, which links Rotterdam and Genoa" — key ports in the Netherlands and Italy, said Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann. "Aside from saving time, more merchandise can be carried through the Alps."

A test run by the EU leaders on Wednesday turned into a sort of mini-summit beneath real Alpine summits: Merkel, Renzi, Hollande and Schneider-Ammann sat face-to-face for a ride in first class through the tunnel. A band played Rossini's "William Tell Overture", after they arrived.

Merkel said it was a "wonderful feeling" to be on the train. Though "more than 2,000 metres of rocks" were above, she said she felt a "feeling of security, because I believe in the security of the Swiss civil engineers".

She congratulated the punctual Swiss and noted how costs were kept within targets.

"That's something Germany still needs to strive for," she added

Hollande, host of the UN climate change summit held in Paris last year, pointed to the tunnel's environmental benefits.

"You have created a great European infrastructure," Hollande said at the tunnel's southern exit. "It will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, redirect traffic from the road to rail and move passengers and goods faster."

He also used the chance to remind Britons of  the unity that the tunnel under the English Channel has brought between Britain and the continent — comments that came just weeks before Britons vote June 23 on whether to stay in the EU or leave.

"More than 20 years ago, a construction was completed between France and the United Kingdom: The Channel Tunnel," Hollande said. "Since then, we are united like never before, and I hope the British remember that when the time comes."

Renzi echoed that connective symbolism, despite the current discord in the EU over how to best handle a surge of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

"At a time when some are thinking about building walls... today Switzerland gives us a beautiful signal about building a tunnel, connecting, and making chances for meeting," Renzi said.

Swiss forces took no chances with security for the inauguration. Almost 2,000 additional Swiss troops were called, helicopters buzzed overhead and airspace restrictions were put over the tunnel area.

GENEVA – The Swiss will head to the polls Sunday to vote on whether to provide the entire population with a basic, unconditional income, in what would be a world first.

But the issue is a contentious one. Here are the main arguments used by the opposing sides.

In favour

• Proponents maintain that providing an  unconditional, basic income (UBI) to all, near the level of an acceptable minimum wage, will help fight extreme poverty and even out inequalities.
• They believe a UBI would give people more flexibility to renegotiate conditions in underpaid jobs, to take time off to study or attempt to open their own business.
• They say a UBI would help families and women especially by giving both parents the flexibility to stay home with children longer if they wish, thereby adding value to working in the home, and providing each family member with more financial independence.
• They insist a UBI could be easily financed by eliminating the need for other costly social programmes, and through an increase in the sales tax (VAT) or a small fee on all electronic transactions.
• They say a UBI is necessary in a world where work is being transformed by technologies that are making more and more jobs obsolete and worsening already high unemployment.
• They insist it is human nature to want to be productive, and that providing people with a UBI would allow them to seek out more valuable and rewarding activities.

Opposed

• Opponents describe the UBI proposal as a "utopia" that cannot work in practice.
• They balk at what they say will be the exorbitant cost of providing a UBI, insisting it would require deep spending cuts and soaring tax hikes.
• They insist many people will simply stop working, leading to lower productivity and output, as well as dwindling tax revenue, to the detriment of the overall economy.
• They maintain that rather than promoting gender equality, a UBI would eliminate much of the progress already made in this area by putting more pressure on women to stay home rather than work.
• They question the need for a UBI in a country like Switzerland, which already has a well-functioning social security system, and warn that financing it through a VAT increase would particularly impact the poor.
• They maintain that a UBI would not create more jobs and would fail to reduce unemployment levels. 

VIENNA – Gulf OPEC members including Saudi Arabia are looking to revive the idea of coordinated oil-output action by major producers when the group meets on Thursday including by establishing a new output ceiling inside the group, OPEC sources said.

Saudi arch-rival and OPEC member Iran said the country was not yet ready for an output pact, but several OPEC sources said the atmosphere inside the group had improved and a compromise was possible.

Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the two political foes and a lack of OPEC decisions.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council is looking for coordinated action at the meeting," a senior OPEC source said, referring to a group combining OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze — aimed at stabilising oil markets — in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

On Wednesday, Iran said its position had not changed and even though its exports were rising quickly it was too early for Tehran to join such a pact — meaning it would need an exemption, which Saudi Arabia has repeatedly resisted.

"Iran supports OPEC's efforts to bring stability to the market with fair and logical prices, but it will not commit to any output freeze," Iran's representative to OPEC, Mehdi Asali, was quoted as saying by Iranian oil ministry news agency Shana.

"The issue of output rationing can be discussed after the market stabilises," Asali said. Iranian officials had yet to arrive in Vienna.

Output ceiling

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC failed to set any production policy including a formal output ceiling, effectively allowing its 13 members to pump at will in an already oversupplied market.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

Those include declining output from US shale producers badly hit by low prices but also forest fires in Canada, militant attacks on pipelines in OPEC member Nigeria and declining output in Venezuela, also a member of the group.

On Wednesday, four OPEC sources said the group was likely to consider setting a new production ceiling.

Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) — in place since December 2011.

OPEC currently produces around 32.5 million bpd. Any ceiling below that number would represent an effective production cut.

Three sources said the ceiling would need to be set substantially above 30 million bpd, but a final figure would likely require lengthy discussions.

"Even a 32 million bpd target would only ratify maximum production and not amount to a policy change. But it could be signalling surprise given the low expectations the market has for this meeting," said Robert McNally, president of the Rapidan group.

Oil recouped intraday losses to trade flat near $50 a barrel on hopes of possible compromises at Thursday's meeting.

The new Saudi energy minister, Khalid Al Falih, was due to meet fellow Gulf ministers later on Wednesday in a traditional gathering preceding OPEC.

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he is taking the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC as an output-setting organisation.

Earlier on Wednesday, Falih met Venezuelan Energy Minister Eulogio Del Pino, who said in a statement that the two "agreed on the importance of OPEC as a major player in the oil market".

He also warned that supply outages have propped up prices in recent months but a global oil glut might build up again when missing barrels return.

"More than 3 million barrels are out of the market. When those circumstances are removed from the market, what's going to happen?" Del Pino told reporters in Vienna.

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Wednesday his widely expected decision to delay a scheduled sales tax increase by two-and-a-half years, putting his plans for fiscal reforms on the back burner due to growing signs of weakness in the economy.

While the decision may help Abe win votes at an upper house election on July 10, it could fan doubts about his plans to curb Japan's huge public debt and fund ballooning social welfare costs of a fast-ageing population.

Mindful of opposition criticism that the delay is a sign his "Abenomics" stimulus policies have failed to spur growth, Abe justified the decision, saying it was needed to forestall risks posed by external factors — notably slowing Chinese growth.

"Abenomics has been steadily producing results, but the global economic environment has changed unexpectedly quickly in the past year. The biggest risk is the slowdown in emerging economies," Abe told a news conference.

"Faced with global risks, we must fully reignite the engine of Abenomics and speed up efforts to escape deflation," he said.

It is the second time Abe has delayed an increase in the sales tax to 10 per cent from 8 per cent, after a rise from 5 per cent in April 2014 tipped the economy back into recession.

"From an economic standpoint, the market is likely to view the delay as a positive surprise for domestic demand," said Lee Jin Yang, macro research analyst for Aberdeen Asset Management in Singapore.

Abe, whose premiership will end when his term as LDP president finishes in September 2018, had repeatedly said he would raise the tax as planned unless the economy faced a shock from a financial crisis or natural disaster.

But he laid the groundwork for a delay at last week's Group of Seven summit, insisting his G-7 partners shared a "strong sense of crisis" about the global economy, and he drew parallels to the 2008 world financial crisis that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

Abe said that while the global economy was not on the verge of another financial crisis, Japan must spearhead efforts to boost global demand by loosening fiscal policy.

"We'll deploy a comprehensive, bold economic package this autumn," he said, without indicating the scale of spending envisaged.

Many economists found Abe's comparisons to the Lehman Brothers failure far-fetched, but there is consensus that Japan's economic data has been disappointingly weak.

Manufacturing activity in May contracted by the most in more than three years. Corporate profits fell at the fastest pace in more than four years in January-March, which could hurt capital expenditure plans.

Slow wage growth has also weighed on consumer spending.

"I'm not sure whether it's bad enough to delay the tax hike but we can't be too optimistic about consumption," Sadanobu Takemasu, president and chief operating officer of major convenience store chain Lawson, told Reuters.

Budget target stays

Abe said he has not abandoned a pledge to bring the primary budget balance into surplus by the fiscal year starting April 2020, and rein in public debt which is already more than double Japan's annual economic output.

But that target had already looked elusive, even based on the government's rosy forecast of real economic growth of 2 per cent on average in coming years.

Abe offered few clues on how Japan will make up the funding gap created by the delay in the tax hike to October 2019, saying only that he will keep reflating growth so tax revenues will continue to increase.

"I have very strong concern about fiscal discipline," said Hiroshi Shiraishi, senior economist at BNP Paribas Securities.

"We are stepping onto a potentially dangerous path because once you start this policy it is difficult to stop, and once you do, the economy will thank."

Abe also ruled out calling a snap general election for parliament's powerful lower house as he did in 2014 after announcing the first tax hike delay.

Speculation had simmered that Abe would call a snap poll in a bid to lock in his ruling bloc's two-thirds "super majority" in the lower house.

PARIS — The world risks getting caught in a low-growth trap, denting the future of generations to come, unless governments step up spending quickly, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned on Wednesday.

Tepid worldwide recovery since the global economic crisis in 2008 "has precipitated a self-fulfilling low-growth trap" said the organisation's chief economist Catherine Mann in its twice-yearly economic outlook.

"Without comprehensive, coherent and collective action, disappointing and sluggish growth will persist, making it increasingly difficult to make good on promises to current and future generations," she added.

The OECD chopped its forecast for global growth this year to 3 per cent, down from the 3.6 per cent it forecast in October. For 2017 it now sees 3.3 per cent growth.

The dismal economic recovery has created forces that are now working to perpetuate slow growth, it said.

In particular, businesses have little incentive to invest given soft demand, while muted wage gains, unemployment and income inequality have held back consumption. Uncertainty also puts the brakes on spending.

Spend, spend, spend 

After years during which international economic institutions urged governments to practise austerity, Mann said that now "fiscal policy must be deployed more extensively".

The OECD said "almost all countries have room to reallocate spending and taxation towards items that offer more support to growth" like investments in infrastructure as well as education. 

While central banks have been supporting the global recovery with ultra-low interest rates and stimulus measures, the OECD said, "it is clear that reliance on monetary policy alone has failed to deliver satisfactory growth and inflation."

Moreover today's low interest rates also provide an opportunity for governments to step up investment.

Mann said the need for governments to shift up spending is urgent.

"The longer the global economy remains in the low-growth trap, the more difficult it will be to break the negative feedback loops, revive market forces, and boost economies to the high-growth path," she said.

She warned that as things stand, negative shocks "could tip the world back into another deep downturn" while geopolitical risks to the global economy are on the rise.

Brexit risks 

The OECD sees the potential exit of Britain from the European Union following a referendum later this month as one major risk. 

If voters chose to leave, hits to trade, investment and spending would likely see the British economy grow by 3 percentage points less in the next four years than if voters choose to stay, according to the OECD.

Already, uncertainty surrounding a possible Brexit "has led to a significant slowdown in economic activity", although if voters choose to stay the OECD says it expects growth to pick up in the second half of this year. 

Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands would be the first of Britain's European partners to bear the brunt in the event of Brexit, it said.

Britain itself could be buffeted by financial market turbulence akin to that seen at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2011 and 2012.

However, if Britain opts to remain in the EU in the referendum, which according to polls is a close call, growth will come in at 1.75 per cent this year, the OECD expects.

World markets went into a panic at the beginning of this year over the prospect of a sharp slowdown in China, which has been the source of most of global growth in recent years, but the OECD now sees growth moderating gradually thanks to recent government fiscal policy measures to support the economy.

It forecasts China's growth rate will slip to 6.5 per cent this year, and then 6.2 per cent in 2017.

China's economy grew by 6.9 per cent last year.

The strong dollar is expected to slow growth in the United States to 1.8 per cent this year, from 2.4 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, the eurozone is seen as marking time at 1.6 per cent growth.

Japan should get a marginal boost, with growth of 0.7 per cent this year, but then stumble to a mere 0.4 per cent expansion in 2017.

Brazil's outlook slashed

For Brazil, the OECD slashed its economic growth forecast, citing political uncertainty and corruption worries.

The Brazilian economy is now expected to contract by 4.3 per cent this year, against the 4 per cent downturn the OECD predicted only in February.

The OECD's view is much more pessimistic than market expectations compiled by Brazil's central bank, which currently point to a fall of around 3.8 per cent in growth.

"The deep recession is set to continue in 2016 and in 2017," it said.

For next year, the OECD now expects GDP to dive again, by 1.7 per cent, a sharp downward revision from its zero-growth forecast in February.

DOHA, Qatar — The economic slowdown gripping countries across the Arab Gulf can be seen in layoffs, slowed construction projects and government cutbacks. For the millions of foreign workers drawn by brighter job prospects, it can have a far-darker side if they find themselves deep in debt.

Gulf countries like Qatar largely don’t have bankruptcy laws, leaving laid-off workers on the hook for huge outstanding sums while often banned from traveling outside of the country. That leaves many unemployed begging friends and family for help while frantically selling off all their belongings. Others have killed themselves out of desperation.

“It was kind of scary for a while there,” said Robert Foster, an American from Beaufort, South Carolina, who found himself trapped for months in Qatar. “We sold everything we had.”

The Middle East has weathered several boom-and-bust cycles over the last decades, both buoyed and beaten by the global price of crude oil, as well as the recent recession. In 2009, the financial meltdown in Dubai saw dusty luxury cars parked and abandoned at its international airport and across the city as foreigners fled their debts.

This recent financial collapse began with oil prices falling from over $100 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to bottom out this January to under $30, a 12-year low. In the time since, oil has clawed back to $50 on supply disruptions and lowered reserves, but the damage already had been done in the Mideast.

Among those hard hit was Qatar, a small oil-and-gas-rich country on the Arabian Peninsula where construction accelerated with the announcement it would host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. As oil and gas prices sank, so too did Qatar’s coffers, leading to layoffs across both private and public companies.

The state-run Qatar Petroleum fired at least 1,500 foreign workers in recent restructuring, said Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Sada, Qatar’s energy and industry minister.

“We did not start with the idea of laying off people for the sake of laying off people,” he recently told The Associated Press. “Nationals were not affected whatsoever, and that was part of our solid policy.”

Maersk Oil said in October it would cut as much as 12 per cent of its staff in Qatar. Vodafone’s Qatar subsidiary announced on May 17 it would cut about 10 percent of its workforce, while mobile phone competitor Ooredoo also made layoffs this year. Al Jazeera, the peninsula nation’s satellite news broadcaster, also shut down its American channel in April.

Foster, 50, a former senior operation manager for the state-linked Hamad Medical Corp.’s ambulance services, began work in March 2014 on a three-year contract, hoping to stay for at least six years to make enough to buy a house in the United States.

However, he said he didn’t receive his first paycheck until three months into his job, which forced him to get a loan of 300,000 Qatari riyals ($82,000) to cover his living expenses, debts and child support payments in the US.

“A lot of us had to get loans to catch up,” Foster said. “And that’s where it started, right there.”

In January, Foster said his boss called him into his office and laid him off, along with other staffers. Four days later, Qatar National Bank closed his account, putting all he had toward his remaining loan, he said.

“There was no notification. It was just a text that said: ‘You’re now overdrawn’,” Foster said.

Under Qatari law, foreign workers must apply for an exit permit through their employer to leave the country. When Foster couldn’t leave for a cruise he planned before with his wife, he realised he was trapped.

Foster said he put his wife, Pepper, on a flight out, then sold all of his belongings, sleeping at night on the floor of his company-provided villa and hiding his remaining cash in the freezer, fearful he could be arrested as a debtor. He dodged phone calls and knocks at the door while trying to pull together the cash needed to pay off his debt.

“I had to give them my retirement and my dad’s retirement to leave,” he said.

Hamad Medical Corp., Qatar’s main health care provider, and Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment.

But Foster said he knew others in far worse shape, including one colleague who even purchased a rope at one point to hang himself. Others have taken their own lives.

A British coroner investigating the suspected suicide of an engineer from Gloucestershire found hanging in his Doha home in February 2015 ruled this March that “financial worries” may have played a part. The case remains open as Qatari authorities provided only “limited information”, according to the inquest report obtained by the AP.

Suicides also affect those coming to Gulf countries for work as labourers, taxi drivers and other low-paying jobs. They often pay recruiters back home in Asia or Africa huge sums that take several years to pay off.

AMMAN — Finance experts on Tuesday urged the Jordanian banking sector to further support small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), which largely contribute to the gross domestic product.

At a discussion session held on the sidelines of the Jordan Afaq Economic Forum, which was inaugurated in Amman recently, the experts criticised the banking sector for not doing enough to assist SMEs, and for mainly "hoarding" cash in its vaults, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to a 2014 financial stability report issued by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), the public sector received 7.9 per cent of credit facilities extended by banks in Jordan.

SMEs received 8.5 per cent, while households' (which include the majority of personal loans) share was 20.5 per cent, followed by the real-estate sector, whose share was 21.3 per cent.

Large companies received the lion's share (41.7 per cent), according to Adli Kandah, director general of the Association of Banks in Jordan.

At the discussion session, participants said banks support only 15 per cent of the SMEs in the country, whereas the remaining 85 per cent rely on their own resources.

Speakers also highlighted the importance of raising awareness among the public on the role of banks and their services.

Meanwhile, Akram Karmoul, president of the association for Investment Protection, said the investment climate in Jordan suffers from many problems, mainly bureaucratic measures, in addition to high production costs.

"Bureaucracy is disgusting," he told The Jordan Times, accusing public sector employees of being "snobbish" and difficult to talk to.

Investments are costly due to production costs, coupled with high living expenses, taxes and fines, thus rendering Jordanian products non-competitive in many cases, Karmoul said.

That is why a good number of investors choose to join the service sector, where there are fewer hardships and less costs, he noted, adding that more and more people choose not to invest their money and prefer to save it.

Also, there is a great need for feasibility studies to be done ahead of venturing into any business, Karmoul said. 

The CBJ should also cut its interests down to encourage investments, he noted.

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) on Tuesday said it will organise an annual exhibition of Jordanian industries in the main Palestinian cities.

The ACI said the decision follows the success of the exhibition of Jordanian industries that was held recently in Nablus.

Forty-five Jordanian industrial companies took part in the exhibition, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.