Between an optimistic government and a pessimistic people. What is the position of the Jordanian economy?

Hadeel Al Rawabdeh - Amman

The Jordanian government, speaking on its official spokesman Jumana Ghneimat, said that the country is gradually recovering from its economic crisis, prompting observers to question the extent to which the government's statement is true, far away from the economic crisis. About excessive government optimism and public pessimism.

Jumana's statement raised a wave of controversy over social networking sites after coinciding with the closure of three companies by a Jordanian investor who left the country followed by a declaration by the Free Zone Investors Authority that sales of electricity vehicles did not generate any revenue over two consecutive months.

The Jordanians recalled what they called the "prophecy" of former Prime Minister Hani al-Mulqi that the Jordanians would emerge from the bottleneck in the middle of this year, and the journalist Jihad Abu Baidar wrote on his official Facebook account. "Honesty Hani al-Mulqi said when we said that in the middle of 2019 we will get out of the bottleneck. We got out of the bottleneck. "

"The Minister of Information says we are starting to get out of the economic crisis and the finance minister says that the total public debt at the end of May 29 billion dinars, who we believe ?!"

In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, Ghneimat said that Jordan has emerged from the neck of the bottle, explaining that it has literally said "the Jordanian economy is gradually emerging from its crisis," relying on the criteria of international economic assessments (Fitch, Standard & Poor's, Moody's and others), she said.

Family Escape
The writer and political analyst Maher Abu Tair was the first to ring the danger of what he described as the escape of the family from Jordan, pointing out that the phenomenon of migration is not limited to funds and investments, but exceeded the migration of citizens and their families because of psychological and economic aversion, according to the expression.

In an article published last January, Abu Tayer warned the government of what he called "blindness" to the repressive factors of Jordanians in their country: the negative economic climate, high taxes, production costs, the recession and the law of owners and tenants, which would turn properties into ghost houses.

In the opinion of the Chairman of the Free Zone Investors Mohammed al-Bastanji that Abu Tayer fears have been achieved, and confirmed the escape of a number of investors in the vehicle sector to Turkey, Dubai, Oman and Egypt.

Drop and drop
Al-Bastanji added that the electricity vehicles sector witnessed a significant deterioration after the government's decision to cancel the exemption and impose a tax and fees on them. The increase in prices of small vehicles from three thousand to eight thousand Jordanian dinars (from 4231 dollars to 11,283 dollars) Thousand Jordanian dinars to twenty thousand (21156 to 28208 dollars).

He pointed out that the increase in the cost of vehicles was reflected in the rate of clearance, which decreased by 70%, and that the number of vehicle clearance decreased from about 700 electric vehicles almost every month - before the decision to cancel the exemption - to zero after the implementation of the decision, From JD 35 million ($ 49.36 million) to just 10 million ($ 14.1 million), the spokesman said.

The real estate investment sector witnessed a remarkable decline in the last three years, which peaked in the first half of this year. The volume of trading decreased by 23% compared to the same period last year, and the transfer of some capital to neighboring countries such as Turkey, Cyprus, UAE and Egypt, Investors in the housing sector.

The head of the Association of Housing Investors Zuhair al-Amri attributed the reasons for the decline to several factors, the high cost of construction and bank interest on housing loans to reach about 10%, according to Al-Jazeera Net.

Al-Amri believes that there are several solutions that may contribute to freezing the recession, such as the creation of small housing units commensurate with the ability of citizens to finance a joint effort between the public and private sectors.

Positive indicators
"The Jordanian economy will begin to recover if growth rates rise from at least 2% to 5%," said Mohamed Abu Hammour, a former finance minister and economist.

According to Abu Hammour, there are three main indicators that showed a growth rate in the first half of this year, which is expected to be positively reflected on the ground. The growth rate of Jordanian exports was 5.5%, expatriate remittances 3.2% and tourism revenues 6.5%.

On the other hand, Abu Hammour believes that the economy will not emerge from its crisis without attracting foreign investment, encouraging its local counterpart and providing a social safety net for the affected people, as well as reducing the cost to the private sector both industrial and commercial.