Amman, May 11 (Petra) — Jordan’s economy is navigating a phase of strategic recalibration in early 2025, exhibiting notable resilience against a complex global and regional backdrop.
First-quarter data indicates a maturing economic structure, with the industrial and financial sectors emerging as principal engines of growth, reflecting a deliberate policy pivot towards value-added activities, technological integration, and enhanced domestic productive capacity.
This trajectory is increasingly evident in both macroeconomic outturns and sectoral performance metrics.
The dynamism of these core sectors is corroborated by Q1 2025 corporate earnings from the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), where aggregate net profits for listed entities advanced a robust 7.6% year-over-year to approximately JOD 565 million.
This outperformance was spearheaded by the financial sector, which generated JOD 365.5 million in net profit, and closely followed by the industrial complex, contributing JOD 161 million.
The services sector also posted positive earnings of JOD 34.7 million. Economists interpret this broad-based profit expansion as indicative of an underlying structural transformation towards an innovation-led, value-centric economic model.
The industrial sector’s strong contribution, evidenced by a 4-7% expansion in exports in Q1 2025 despite prevailing global economic deceleration, underscores the efficacy of a decade-long policy emphasis on transitioning from primary commodity reliance to sophisticated manufacturing.
This strategic pivot, validated by benchmarks such as a recent UNIDO report highlighting Jordan’s rising technological component and local value-added in manufacturing surpassing some established regional peers points to enhanced productivity and international competitiveness.
Dr. Iyad Abu Haltam, a leading industrial sector representative, attributes this resilience to sustained investment in human capital, an improved business operating environment, and government support for digitization and modernization financing.
The discernible shift from extractive industries (now less than 23% of industrial exports) towards knowledge-based manufacturing further solidifies this structural change. However, Dr. Abu Haltam notes that structural impediments, chiefly export market concentration, necessitate continued strategic focus on market diversification and SME upgrading via the new national industrial policy to sustain this growth trajectory.
Parallel strength was observed in Jordan’s financial domain. The ASE General Index appreciated 1.52% during Q1, a positive signal amidst global financial circumspection.
Analysts, including Dr. Omar Al-Gharaibeh of Al al-Bayt University, largely credit this stability to the Central Bank of Jordan’s prudent and consistent monetary policy, which has successfully balanced growth imperatives with exchange rate anchoring.
Within the financial ecosystem, the insurance (+4.07% index rise) and banking (+1.88% index rise) sub-sectors demonstrated notable strength, reflecting improved operational efficiencies, healthy credit markets, and a supportive regulatory environment.
Conversely, diversified financial services and the real estate sector faced some headwinds from equity market volatility and interest rate pressures, indicating differentiated performance dynamics.
These sectoral outturns are consistent with broader positive macroeconomic aggregates. Financial expert Husam Ayesh highlighted that Q1 local revenues expanded to approximately JOD 1.444 billion, bolstered by solid tax receipts.
The banking system’s profitability (Q1 net profit +7.2% YoY to JOD 251 million), coupled with an expanding deposit base exceeding JOD 47 billion and robust credit origination surpassing JOD 35 billion, reflects sound macro-financial linkages and efficient liquidity management.
These domestic strengths, augmented by resilient tourism receipts (over JOD 1 billion in Jan-Feb) and stable expatriate remittances, have fortified foreign exchange reserves beyond USD 22 billion, thereby providing the monetary authorities with substantial policy space.
Mr. Ayesh emphasized that the stable to positive outlooks from international credit rating agencies, alongside favorable IMF assessments of Jordan’s fiscal discipline and reform progress, affirm the credibility of the ongoing Economic Modernisation Vision.
The confluence of these positive sectoral and macroeconomic indicators suggests Jordan is solidifying a new phase of more diversified and resilient growth.
The accelerated transformation observed in these key sectors is viewed as a testament to the efficacy of the current administration’s economic strategies, establishing a robust foundation for achieving the Kingdom’s long-term sustainable development objectives and enhancing its structural competitiveness.
//Petra// AA
11/05/2025 11:36:04
