Jordan, US to seal eurobond deal by end of month

Jordan has agreed with the US Department of Treasury on the terms of issuing $1 billion in US-guaranteed Eurobonds in global markets, according to Minister of Finance, Umayya Toukan. After negotiations with the US officials on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund, Toukan told Petra that an initial agreement was reached to conclude the issuance deal by the end of this month in Amman with the US government represented by the funding body, the US Agency for International Development (USAID). "The issuance represents a "strong message of support from the United States to Jordan" that will enable the government to fund the current and the capital expenditure," Toukan added, noting that this type of leverage will be lower than the domestic borrowing at a rate of 2.5 percent, in addition to not having to compete with the private sector on bank liquidity. The negotiations with the US officials also tackled economic reforms undertaken by the Jordanian government and means of increasing the rate of economic growth. Commenting on a meeting of the governors of the International Monetary Fund representing Middle East and North Africa with Director-General of the Fund, Christine Lagarde, minister Toukan said that Jordan stressed the importance of increasing productivity through better management of the human element which will eventually lead to an increase in the gross domestic product. "The IMF mission reviewed the Jordanian economic reforms in all sectors and will offer those revisions to the Fund's Board of Executive Directors by the end of this month in order to release a new batch of loans worth $264 million," he added, noting that the approval of the revisions is one of the main conditions of the US Department of Treasury to ensure issuance of the Jordanian eurobonds in the global market. In response to a question about whether Jordan needs to change its economic policies if the Syrian conflict continues, Toukan said that the current economic policy is consistent with the extra burden of Syrian refugees, stressing that the greater the number of refugees becomes, the more the international support that Jordan will need.