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Jordan’s Public Debt Amounts to $38.69 Bn

Jordan’s Public Debt Amounts to $38.69 Bn
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Jordan’s Public Debt Amounts to $38.69 Bn

Jordan’s Public Debt Amounts to $38.69 Bn

Jordan’s public debt has amounted to JD27.443 billion ($38.69 billion) by the end of January 2018, constituting 95.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) compared to JD27.296 billion ($38.45 billion) in the same period in 2017, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said that the debts of the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) reached JD 3.7 billion by the end of January this year.

The net public debt stood at JD 25.790 billion at the end of January 2018, which constituted 89.8 percent of the 2017 GDP, the ministry said.

Regarding the outstanding external debt, it increased to JD 11.87 billion, or 4.41 percent of the estimated GDP at the end of January 2018, compared to JD 11.86 billion, or 41.5 percent at the end of 2017.

On the other hand, the external debt service has amounted to about JD 158.7 million in January 2018, distributed as JD 110.4 million in installments and JD 48.3 million as interest.

As for the net balance of internal public debt (public budget and budgets of independent institutions), it rose at the end of January to reach about JD 13.916 billion, or 48.5 percent of GDP, compared to about JD 13.568 billion or 47.4 percent of GDP at the end of 2017, up JD 347.2 million.

In a related matter, the Jordan Jewelers Association (JJA) and the Standards and Metrology Organization (JSMO) of the Jordanian government reached a consensus decision to cancel the sales tax on gold and jewels.

JJA President Osama Imseeh told reporters that it was agreed to cancel the 16 percent tax on the gold coin and keep the stamping fee.

Imseeh added that the meeting, which brought together representatives of the association with the Director of JSMO and the Director General of income and sales tax on Monday, resulted in a consensus on the cancellation of the tax, and the traders ended their strike after the agreement and opened their shops.

Notably, gold traders had decided to carry out a comprehensive strike and closed their shops in protest against the government's decision to impose a 16 percent tax on the gold fee imposed recently.

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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."