AMMAN (Middle East Eye) – A recent report by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation says that even though Jordan has begun a corrective program with the International Monetary Fund, the economic situation has reached such lows that it has caused a rise in the national debt and a continuous budgetary deficit.
This has all happened while spending on the social protections given to citizens has been greatly reduced.
The report, Uncovered: The role of the IMF in Shrinking the Social Protection - Case Studies from Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco, argues that the “strengthening of social spending in Jordan requires financial reform based on a long-term reorganization in order to lower expenses”.
It also states that Jordanian citizens receive social rewards (free medical services, university scholarships, public service employment) in return for their allegiance to the ruling regime.
Therefore, the state will always cover these social services to guarantee the continued political support of its citizens. Nevertheless, these social services were not provided in an orderly and measured system based on comprehensive social protection.
But these services do not extinguish the ticking timebomb of an army of poor and unemployed citizens, who constitute the core of a social movement the Jordan government is worried could explode into protest like the Arab Spring movements.
According to official statistics from the Higher Housing Council, more than 15.7 percent of the population in Jordan lives under the poverty line.
Laith Alajlouni, an economics researcher who contributed to the Fredrich Ebert report, told Middle East Eye: “Jordan has witnessed during the last 10 years a clear retraction of its economic status for Jordanians. The percentage of the poor had reached 24 percent in August 2021 according to estimates by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.
“Unemployment has also seen a noticeable increase, reaching 22.8 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2022. It reached a high of 25 percent a year earlier in the first quarter of 2021.
“This retraction is a mix of historic, political and other factors all connected with the governmental financial and political administration and are connected to the reforms of the IMF.
“The weakness of the social protection network and a general policy that is built on the rentier economic policies which consecutive governments have applied as an alternative to building up a democratic life, all these caused the government to be weaker in its ability to manage its resources successfully.”