jordan pulse -
Central Bank Governor Adel Sharkas said on Saturday that indications indicate that the monetary tightening cycle is over.
During the 2024 Jordan Banking Summit, Sharkas added that the interest rate cut will start from the second quarter of this year, by 25 basis points per quarter.
Al-Sharkas stressed that the local economic file enjoyed many achievements during 2023, despite the fragile global environment and the uncertainty that the world is witnessing.
He pointed out that Jordan's commitment to economic reform, and its enjoyment of a stable financial and monetary environment, made Jordan enjoy the confidence of international institutions, including credit rating institutions, which unanimously agreed on the stable credit outlook for Jordan during 2023, which confirms the soundness of the Kingdom’s economic approach.
He pointed out that the year 2023 was characterized by achieving positive performance in many economic indicators, noting that the national economy was able to achieve economic growth of 2.8% during the second quarter of 2023, with an average growth of 2.7% during the first three quarters of 2023.
He said that the effective monetary policy pursued by the Central Bank, and its credibility in maintaining harmony between local interest rates and regional and international interest rates, contributed to enhancing confidence in the national economy, maintaining monetary stability, and the strength of the dinar, in the heart of a global and regional environment full of challenges, stressing that this confidence translated into a continued decline in the dollarization rate to reach 18% until the end of November 2023, compared to rates of more than 20% before the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, in addition to maintaining record levels of reserves. Foreign funds with the Central Bank exceeded 18 billion, enough to cover 9 months of the Kingdom’s imports of goods and services. This is in addition to contributing to the survival of the inflation rate, which reached 2.1% during 2023, to remain within appropriate limits for economic activity, in a way that stimulates the savings and investment environment in the Kingdom.
At the level of the banking sector, Sharkas stressed that the year 2023 proved, with all its challenges, the strength and strength of the Jordanian banking sector, especially for its possession of high levels of capital that are among the highest in the Middle East and North Africa, reaching 17.4% at the end of the first half of 2023, in addition to the banking sector enjoying comfortable levels of legal liquidity amounting to about 135.4%, noting that despite the challenges experienced by the national economy, It decreased Non-performing debt to 5.0% at the end of the first half of 2023, which is relatively low, and within manageable levels.