AMMAN, 11 August 2004 — Jordan’s external debt grew by 17 percent over the past couple of years to $7.38 billion, mainly because of the rising exchange rate of the euro versus the US dollar, Finance Minister Mohammad Abu Hammour announced yesterday.
He told the upper House of Parliament the country’s external debt stood at 5.22 billion dinars ($7.38 billion) on July 1, when Jordan terminated a 15-year-old economic rectification program that was supervised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The figure reflected an increase of 750 million dinars ($1.06 billion) because of the increase in the exchange rate of the euro,” Abu Hammour said.
The bulk of Jordan’s indebtedness belongs to Japan and European countries, particularly Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
However, the minister said that a series of debt-for-equity swap agreements with creditor countries had reduced Jordan’s external debt by $600 million over the past few years.
Prime Minister Faisal Fayez denied charges by opposition parties that the external debt developed as a result of “corruption” on the part of government officials.
“The government was obliged to resort to borrowing in the 1960’s and 1970’s of the past century for financing the building of the country’s infrastructure,” he told the House.