Jordan’s lower house passes 2022 budget bill after seven days of deliberations

Jordan’s lower house passes 2022 budget bill after seven days of deliberations

AMMAN: Jordan’s lower house on Monday passed the 2022 draft laws for the state budget and for this year’s budgets of independent public institutions after marathon deliberations that dragged on for seven days. Of the 130-member lower house, a total of 107 members of parliament took the podium to comment on the budget laws, with most of them expressing alarm over “high” unemployment rates and calling for increased capital spending to create jobs. According to official figures, the unemployment rate in Jordan reached 23.2 percent in the third quarter of 2021. The public expenditures are projected in the draft law at JD 10.068 billion ($14.105 billion) and the pre-foreign aid budget deficit at JD 2.604 billion, or 7.7 percent of the gross domestic product. The post-foreign aid budget deficit is estimated in the law to stand at JD 1.756 billion, or 5.2 percent of the estimated GDP. Current expenditures are estimated at JD 9.117 billion, up by JD 327 million, or 3.7 percent from the JD 8.79 billion set forth in the 2021 budget. Healthcare allocations are increased in the budget law by JD 177 million to a total of JD 1.113 billion against JD 956 million in the 2021