AMMAN (JT) -- Jordan will complete on July 2 an economic adjustment programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund which has concluded its review of the Kingdom's economic progress, Finance Minister Mohammad Abu Hammour said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a meeting with the Financial and Economic Committee of the Lower House of Parliament, Abu Hammour said the programme would be followed by a national programme supervised by local experts.
Referring to the state of the economy in the first quarter of 2004, the minister said the government was able to control current expenditure by around JD25 million.
He also indicated that from the beginning of 2005 the Socio-economic Transformation Plan will come under the budget's capital expenditure and will not be separate.
According to the minister, a 30 per cent increase in imports during the first quarter of 2004 reflected positively on the customs revenues bearing in mind the rise in the value of the euro and the rise in oil prices.
Exports increased by 44 per cent, Abu Hammour pointed out noting that most of the exports were agricultural products and garments produced at the Qualified Industrial Zones.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry on Tuesday said in a statement that Jordan's foreign debt stood at $7.32 billion at the end of April with 60 per cent of the amount owed to the industrial super-powers.
Japan is Jordan's main creditor and owed $1.7 billion, followed by France with $837.5 million, Britain with $587 million and Germany with $469.5 million.
The US, Jordan's key provider of economic and military assistance owed $440 million.
Jordan also owed $239.4 million and $153.7 million respectively to Kuwaiti and Saudi funds, according to the ministry's report.
International institutions owed a total of $2.3 billion including more than $1 billion to the World Bank.
Last year, Jordan's foreign debt climbed to $7.7 billion while in July 2002, the Paris Club agreed to reschedule $1.2 billion owed to creditor countries by Jordan.
According to the ministry's report, the overall expenditure in the first five months of 2004 reached JD942.7 million compared to JD968.6 million during the same period of 2003, registering a drop of JD25.9 million or 2.7 per cent.
The decrease in total expenditures came as a result of a drop in capital expenditures by JD1.8 million or 1.2 per cent, and a decrease in current expenditure by JD24.1 million or three per cent.
On the other hand, total revenues and grants amounted to JD914.9 million during the first five months of this year compared to JD1,038 million during the same period of 2003, a decrease of JD123.1 million or 11.9 per cent.
This decrease was an outcome of a rise in domestic revenues by 33.7 per cent and a decline in foreign grants which amounted to JD66.9 million in the first five months of 2004 compared to JD403.6 million during the same period of 2003.
Domestic revenues amounted to JD848 million during the first five months of this year compared to JD634.4 million during the same period of 2003, an increase of JD213.6 million.
The increase in domestic revenues came as a result of an increase in tax revenues, nontax revenues and repayments by JD166.6 million, JD23.1 million and JD23.9 million respectively.
The increase in tax revenues was a result of a rise in revenues from the income tax, General Sales Tax, customs duties and others.
The increase in nontax revenues was an outcome of an increase in licences, fees, profits from one hand, and a decrease in miscellaneous on the other hand.
Loan repayments amounted to JD39.1 million in the first five months of 2004 compared to JD15.2 million during the same period of 2003.
As such, the overall budget deficit amounted to JD27.8 million in the first five months of 2004 compared to an overall surplus of JD69.4 million in the same period of the last year.
Excluding rescheduled interest amounting to JD21.5 million in the first five months of 2004, the overall deficit (cash basis) comes down to JD6.3 million compared to a surplus of JD98.4 million in the same period of the previous year.
© Jordan Times 2004
