Public debt close to $23bn

The Jordanian Finance Ministry Amman - Osama al-Rantissi The Jordanian Finance Ministry has revealed that the country's public budget deficit after grants and aid has increased in the last 10 months of 2012 to $1.6bn, compared to $644.5m during the same period in 2011. The ministry's financial statements show an increase in the national debt from $18.9bn to $22.9bn. The rise comes alongside rising internal public debt, which rose by 29%. The external public debt sits at $6.8bn, compared to $6.3bn at the end of 2011. The net public debt accumulated by October 2012 accounts for 73 percent of the GDP estimated for this year, according to current market prices. Total public revenues during the past ten months have reached 3.8bn dinars ($5.3bn), of which 3.7bn dinars ($5.2bn) are local revenues. Furthermore, grants and foreign aid to support the general budget during the first ten months of the year came to 97m dinars ($136m), compared to 1.05bn dinars ($1.4bn) at the end of last year. Overall, there has been an increase in local revenues during the past ten months by 3.3%, which is approximately 121m dinars ($170m), resulting in the 3.7bn dinars total. Public spending increased from 5.25bn dinars ($7.74bn) in 2011 to 5.14bn dinars ($7.24bn) in 2012, a decline of 2.4% from the the 2010-11 period. The ministry says decline is down to a 134m dinars ($188m) decrease in capital expenditures, from 600m dinars ($844m) to 466m dinars ($656m).