to an
average of roughly 2% per year. Imports - mainly oil, capital goods,
consumer durables, and food - outstripped exports, with the difference
covered by aid, remittances, and borrowing. In mid-1989, the Jordanian
Government began debt-rescheduling negotiations and agreed to
implement an IMF-supported program designed to gradually reduce the
budget deficit and implement badly needed structural reforms. The
Persian Gulf crisis that began in August 1990, however, aggravated
Jordan's already serious economic problems, forcing the government to
shelve the IMF program, stop most debt payments, and suspend
rescheduling negotiations. Aid from Gulf Arab states, worker
remittances, and trade contracted; and refugees flooded the country,
producing serious balance-of-payments problems, stunting GDP growth,
and straining government resources. The economy rebounded in 1992,
largely due to the influx of capital repatriated by workers returning
from the Gulf, but the recovery was uneven in 1994-96. The government
is implementing the reform program adopted in 1992 and continues to
secure rescheduling and write-offs of its heavy foreign debt. Debt,
poverty, and unemployment remain Jordan's biggest on-going problems.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $20.9 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 5.9% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $5,000 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 6%
industry: 28%
services : 66% (1995 est.)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 4.5% (1996 est.)

Labor force:
total : 600,000 (1992)
by occupation: industry 11.4%, commerce, restaurants, and hotels
10.5%, construction 10.0%, transport and communications 8.7%,
agriculture 7.4%, other services 52.0% (1992)

Unemployment rate: 16% (1994 est.)

Budget:
revenues : $2.7 billion
expenditures: $2.8 billion, including capital expenditures of $630
million (1997 est.)

Industries: phosphate mining, petroleum refining, cement, potash,
light manufacturing

Industrial production growth rate: 3.9% (1995)

Electricity - capacity: 1.07 million kW (1994)

Electricity - production: 4.76 billion kWh (1994)

Electricity - consumption per capita: 1,173 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: wheat, barley, citrus, tomatoes, melons,
olives; sheep, goats, poultry

Exports:
total value : $1.9 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: phosphates, fertilizers, potash, agricultural products,
manufactures
partners: India