Amman, (Business News Report)|| The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s reserve assets increased by 1% last February, compared to the previous month.
Jordan’s reserve assets (currencies, gold, bonds and bills) amounted to 14.753 billion dinars ($20,801 billion) at the end of February, the central bank said.
It should be noted that reserve assets rose from 14.6 billion dinars ($20.5 billion) at the end of last January.
On an annual basis, the Jordan’s reserve assets increased by 14%, from 12.922 billion dinars ($18.22 billion) during the same month of 2021.
The value of the reserve covers 9.4 months of the value of the kingdom’s imports of goods and services, according to the Central Bank.
Foreign reserves in the Kingdom depend on important factors, including expatriate remittances, tourism income, and foreign investment, in addition to foreign aid.
It is likely that the International Monetary Fund mission will start the fourth review under the program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), after it concluded at the beginning of the year its third review.
In light of these data, the Kingdom will have received the equivalent of $335.2 million, bringing what has been borrowed from the Fund since the start of 2020 for a period of four years to $1.23 billion.
In a related context, the Association of Banks in Jordan postponed the installments of individual loans for the month of April, on the occasion of the month of Ramadan, and the current economic conditions.
The Director-General of the Association of Banks, Maher Al-Mahrouq, said that the procedure stems from the social responsibility of banks operating in Jordan.
Al-Mahrouq stressed that the move comes as an effort by the banks to relieve citizens during the month of Ramadan, especially under the current circumstances.
He stressed that banks in Jordan have agreed, in coordination with the Central Bank of Jordan, to postpone the installments of individual loans during the month of Ramadan (April) without delaying interest or commissions.
Al-Mahrouq indicated that customers who do not wish to postpone should contact the banks they deal with to inform them of their unwillingness to do so.
The figures of the Financial Stability Report for the year 2020 issued by the Central Bank of Jordan showed that the indebtedness of individuals rose to 12 billion dinars ($17 billion) until the end of last year, at a rate of 7% from the end of 2019.
The report also indicated that the average monthly burden of an individual’s debt-to-income ratio in Jordan rose to 45 percent at the end of 2020, compared to 43 percent at the end of 2019.
