Jordan to negotiate $1 billion debt-reduction loan, oil from Iraq to help boost economy
AMMAN (Bloomberg) -- Jordan and the World bank are in $1-billion loan discussions to cut the cost of the Middle East country's debt repayments and revive an economy strained by more than a million Syrian refugees.
The government’s “moving on several fronts to reduce the high debt burden by considering concessional loans and focusing on triggering economic growth,” Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said at a World Economic Forum meeting on Jordan’s Dead Sea shores. It’s seeking a 30-year facility with the World Bank and an interest rate of 4%, he said.
Jordan, whose public debt of $39.9 billion (28.3 billion dinars) nearly equals economic output, has been hurt by the rise in global commodity prices. The U.S. last year committed to give Jordan more than $6 billion in aid over the next five years, up from $1 billion annually, while Saudi Arabia and two allied Gulf nations pledged an assistance package after a proposed income tax increase sparked some of the biggest protests since the Arab Spring.
Regional wars took a toll on the economy, with unemployment at a two-decade high stirring discontent. The recent reopening of Jordan’s border with Iraq after Islamic State militants were pushed from the area has fueled an annual 13.6% in increase in Jordanian exports in the first-quarter 2019.
“We are working on driving economic growth, increasing exports,” said Razzaz. The two countries also plan to connect their electric grids and build an industrial zone near the border, he said.
Jordan will also start receiving oil from Iraq by tanker “very soon,” according to the premier, under a February deal for 10,000 bpd. He said that a planned oil pipeline from Basra in Iraq to Jordan’s Aqaba would “see the light” in three years, without elaborating.
