Jordan Times
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Growth rate at fixed prices stood at 3.2% in 2003 — Awadallah
AMMAN (Petra) — Growth rate at fixed prices stood at 3.2 per cent in 2003 compared to five per cent in 2002, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Bassem Awadallah indicated on Wednesday referring to initial figures from the Department of Statistics.As a result of a 1.9 per cent growth in the deflated gross domestic product compared to 0.4 per cent in 2002, the nominal growth rate amounted to 5.1 per cent in 2003 compared to 5.4 per cent in 2002.
These results confirm the economy's sustainable positive performance as it has been able to achieve a real growth rate that is slightly above the growth of the population rate despite regional and international challenges, the minister said.
Though still below the desired level, the results prove that the country's economy is flexible and effective enough to meet any changes or challenges, he added.
Awadallah highlighted the results as a reflection of the success of adjustment measures adopted by the government throughout the last decade and fostered during the past few years.
Slightly before the outbreak of the war against Iraq, some international institutions predicted that the economy would not be able to achieve any growth rate in 2003, he noted.
The planning chief pointed out that the real growth recorded in 2003 resulted from expansion in the sectors of transport, communications, banking and finance, insurance, real estate, government services, wholesale and retail as well as restaurants and hotels. Combined, all these sectors accounted for over 78 per cent of the average growth rate.
The great sluggishness witnessed in manufacturing industries was one of the main reasons leading to slower economic growth in 2003.
Last year, the manufacturing industries sector grew by 2.2 per cent in fixed prices compared to 11.4 per cent in 2002, reducing its contribution to the real growth rate to 0.3 per cent from 1.6 per cent in 2002.
The slump in the manufacturing sector resulted from the repercussions of adverse regional conditions, leading to lower production rates.
During the last quarter of 2003, the economy posted a 3.5 per cent growth in fixed prices and 5.7 per cent in current prices compared to 4.6 per cent and 4.9 per cent during the same period of 2002, respectively.
The real growth rate achieved in the last quarter of 2003 was slightly higher than 2.8 per cent, 3.0 per cent and 3.2 per cent posted respectively during the first three quarters of 2003, the minister concluded.