Jordan Economic Monitor, Spring 2015 : Persisting Forward Despite Challenges
Jordans economy continues to slowly but steadily recover from the Arab Spring spillovers. These spillovers include Egypts gas disruptions, the neighboring Syrian and Iraqi conflicts and associated security incidents. Notwithstanding these shocks, r...
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Format: | Report |
Language: | Arabic,English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2015
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/05/24568289/jordan-economic-monitor-persisting-forward-despite-challenges-spring-2015 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22047 |
Summary: | Jordans economy continues to slowly but
steadily recover from the Arab Spring spillovers. These
spillovers include Egypts gas disruptions, the neighboring
Syrian and Iraqi conflicts and associated security
incidents. Notwithstanding these shocks, real GDP growth
rate is estimated to have reached 3.1 percent in 2014, up 30
basis points over 2013. From the supply side, growth was led
by construction, wholesale and retail trade, and finance and
insurance, with a pick-up in the mining and quarrying
sector. On the demand side, growth was predominantly fueled
by higher public investments, mostly due to earmarked GCC
grants, and a narrower trade deficit. The steady economic
recovery has improved unemployment rates although this masks
underlying structural weaknesses. While unemployment dropped
from 12.6 to 11.9 percent from 2013 to 2014, this was not
driven by increased employment but by an equivalent and
concerning drop in the labor force participation rate. This
was possibly driven by discouraged workers given perceived
competition from refugees and limited hiring prospects in
the public sector given ongoing consolidation efforts. |
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