Jordan's lower house of parliament on Sunday voted to approve a six-billion-dollar budget for the fiscal year 2007 as proposed by the government, reported Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa. The vote came after a week of deliberations under the dome, during which the government of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit came under attack from both opposition and pro-establishment lawmakers. The 2007 budget estimates envisage total spending of 4.334 billion dinars (6.12 billion dollars), which represent an increase of 10 per cent over last year's projections, according to Finance Minister Ziyad Fariz. He said that excluding foreign aid, the projected budget deficit would come to 8.4 per cent as a ratio of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007, compared with 7.6 per cent in 2006. When foreign aid is taken into account, the deficit will drop to as low as 3.4 cent as a ratio of the GDP, compared with 4.5 per cent in 2006, he added.
