The projected public spending accounts for 30.9 percent as a ratio of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 33.6 per cent in 2011, Finance Minister Umayya Toukan said.

The spending estimates take into account the subsidization of imported energy products to which the authorities resorted over the past nine months in a bid to calm down pro-reform demonstrations that were largely inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, economists said.

Toukan conceded that the Jordanian economy came under pressures in the past year from the global financial crisis, the Arab Spring revolts and the euro zone sovereign debt ordeal.

He said that the 2012 budget plan envisaged a deficit of 1.027 billion dinars, or 4.6 per cent of the GDP, if foreign aid was taken into account.

Excluding foreign aid estimated at 870 million dinars, the deficit rises to 1.896 billion dinars, or 8.6 per cent of the GDP.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) advises budget deficits not exceeding 3 percent as a ratio of the GDP so that the country’s finances be in a safe situation.

Toukan put Jordan’s total foreign and domestic debt at 13.26 billion dinars, or 65 percent of the GDP.

He said the country’s indebtedness and the record budget deficit “should not continue because they involve negative repercussions on the stability of the economy, particularly the monetary and banking sectors” and could prompt rating agencies to downgrade the country.

The minister expected the Jordanian economy to grow at a pace of 3 percent next year, drastically down from 6.5 percent in 2008.