Jordan's Central Bank Decides to Keep Interest Rates Steady

SadaNews Economy - The Open Market Operations Committee of the Central Bank of Jordan, in its fourth meeting of 2026, has decided to maintain the "central bank's key interest rate" at its current level of 5.75%, keeping other monetary policy interest rates unchanged.

This decision comes in light of the committee's assessment of economic and monetary developments at both the local and international levels, and aligns with the central bank's primary objective of maintaining monetary stability and aligning local interest rates with prevailing rates in regional and international financial markets.

The committee affirmed its continued close monitoring of economic and monetary developments at both the regional and international levels, and that the central bank will take necessary measures to maintain monetary stability, highlighting the package of proactive measures the bank undertook in April of this year, amounting to a total of 760 million Jordanian Dinars, which contributed to enhancing the resilience of the national economy.

Available data has shown the strength of monetary indicators in the kingdom; foremost among them are the bank's foreign currency reserves, which reached 27.2 billion dollars at the end of May 2026, achieving an increase of 1.7 billion dollars compared to their level at the end of 2025. These reserves are sufficient to cover the kingdom's imports of goods and services for 9.5 months, while the inflation rate has remained moderate at 1.88% during the first five months of 2026, compared to an inflation rate of 1.97% for the same period in 2025. The Jordanian banking sector continues to enjoy comfortable levels of liquidity, profitability, and capital adequacy.

On the external front, remittances from Jordanians working abroad to the kingdom increased by 13.3% during the first four months, reaching 1.6 billion dollars, while national exports grew by 1.6% to reach 3.0 billion dollars during the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, tourism income recorded nearly 2.8 billion dollars during the first five months of this year, reflecting a decrease of 9.2%, influenced by the repercussions of the war in Iran.