Traders and representatives of major commercial sectors said that “scarce liquidity” and “weak household purchasing power” were the main challenges they faced during 2021.
However, 2021 remains better than 2020, but 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic, remains better than both, according to the head of the Jordan Chamber of Commerce (JCI), Nael Kabariti, who called on the government to find a mechanism to solve what he called “the problem of lack of liquidity”, which does not depend on the “direct injection of funds”.
Kabariti aloso called for re-visiting the investment law, the landlords and tenants law, and others.
The representative of the garments, footwear, fabrics and jewelry sector at the JCI, Asaad Al-Qawasmi, described 2021 as the “year of suffering,” saying that the pandemic undermined household purchasing power and prompted families to rearrange their spending priorities due to the lack of liquidity.
He pointed out that higher shipping had a heavy toll on the apparel and footwear sector, explaining that merchants were unable to raise prices, except by a small percentage on goods imported from China only, which reduced imports by 20 percent to about JD110 million until the end of last October.
For his part, the representative of the electrical and electronics sector, Hatem Al-Zoubi, said that the sector faces challenges and obstacles like other sectors, including a declining purchasing power, and more expensive goods as a result of costlier freight.
He pointed out that the government was presented with a “strategic emergency plan” that includes granting this sector soft banking facilities at low interest rates and for all segments of traders, noting that reducing customs duties on electrical appliances would revitalize the sector.
During the first 11 months of the year, the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, inched up by 1.25 percent to 102.36 points, compared to 101.1 points for the same period in 2020.
Source: Jordan News Agency