AMMAN: Jordan is targeting reducing its budget deficit to just five percent of its GDP in fiscal 2011, the country's finance minister said Sunday. Public spending under the proposed budget for fiscal 2011 has been set at about 6.24 billion Jordanian dinars ($8.81 billion), a slight increase of 364 million dinars from expenditure under the 2010 budget. “The budget for next year was prepared according to expectations that the regional and international economies are recovering from the repercussions of the global recession,” Finance Minister Mohammad Abu-Hammour said. The budget forecasts a deficit of 1.06 billion dinars ($1.49 billion), or 5 percent of the GDP, Abu-Hammour said. That's 500 million dinars ($706 million) less than this year's record deficit, which constituted 25 percent of the budget. Public revenues are estimated at 5.18 billion dinars, representing 24.7 percent of the GDP, the minister said adding that figure included 4.89 billion dinars in expected local revenues and an estimated 290 million dinars in unspecified foreign grants. Resource-poor Jordan was among the hardest hit Arab nations during the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009. The country relies heavily on foreign investments, remittances from workers abroad and foreign aid – all of which were affected during the financial crisis. Economist Hani Horani said while the 2011 deficit was “realistic and reasonable,” Jordan should further curtail spending to “achieve self-reliance instead of depending on foreign aid.” “With the global recession in mind, donor nations might prefer to help their people rather than a foreign country,” he said.
