AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh has announced a cabinet reshuffle to improve his administration’s performance under IMF-guided economic reforms. The British-educated former veteran diplomat and palace aide was appointed two years ago to restore public trust over the handling of COVID-19 and defuse anger at successive governments’ failure to halt corruption and deliver prosperity. The finance, foreign and interior ministers were kept in place in the reshuffle, which changed nearly a third of cabinet ministers overall. Of 11 new ministers, three are women.
Khasawneh has sought to accelerate reforms pushed by King Abdullah to help the oil importing country reverse a decade of sluggish growth hovering at around 2 percent that was worsened by the pandemic and foreign-backed conflict in neighboring Iraq and Syria.