Amman, The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) on Thursday raised all its benchmark monetary policy rates by 25 basis points, effective February 5, 2023.
In a statement, the bank’s Open Operations Market Committee said that the decision came after an extensive discussion on economic, monetary and banking developments in the Kingdom, economic performance predictions for the current year, and the latest developments in the global and regional economy.
The committee also discussed the measures of other central banks to restrain inflationary pressures and the current predictions for the trends of global and regional interest rates during the current year.
The committee said it kept interest rates on a JD1.4 billion CBJ-sponsored refinancing program, which targets 10 sectors, unchanged at 1.0 percent for Amman-based businesses and 0.5 percent for borrowers in the rest of the Kingdom.
The committee also decided to extend another JD700 million credit line targeting small and medium companies, professionals and craftsmen to April 2023 at an interest rate not exceeding 2 percent, and for a period of 54 months, including a grace period of up to 12 months.
The committee stressed the CBJ’s commitment to preserving the Kingdom’s monetary stability and the Jordanian dinar’s appeal as a savings instrument, in addition to supporting productive economic sectors, which are closely linked to the rest of the national economy sectors that have a high added value through its JD1.4 billion refinancing program.
The decisions also came in response to inflationary pressures in regional and global economies, which have raised the Kingdom’s inflation rate to 4.2 percent in 2022.
Source: Jordan News Agency