Jordan expects up to 4% growth

Liquidity of Jordanian banks is more than 150 per cent which is well above the 100 per cent requirement of the central bank, Central Bank of Jordan's (CBJ) Deputy Governor Kholoud Saqqaf said.

Jordanian banks' capital adequacy ratio stands at 19.3 per cent, which is above the CBJ's minimum requirement of 12 per cent, she told the forum.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total loans had risen from 4.2 per cent in 2008 to 6.4 per cent end of 2009, she said, attributing the increase to the global economic crisis.

She said the economy is expected to grow between three per cent and four per cent in 2010 compared to a growth of three per cent in 2009.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Islamic banking forum being held at the Jordanian Dead Sea resort, Saqqaf said that Jordan's inflation rate rose to four per cent year-on-year in February due to higher energy cost in the oil import bill. The rate was 3.9 per cent in the previous month.

She also said that foreign reserves at Central Bank of Jordan currently stood at $11 billion (Dh40.37bn), compared with only $5bn three years ago. She attributed the increase to people preferring to deposit their money in Jordanian dinars rather than in other currencies such as the US dollar.

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