6.0% GDP growth rate in 2007 and 6.5% for the fourth quarter of the same year at fixed prices

The National Accounts reports issued by the Department of Statistics indicate that the rate of growth in the Jordanian economy for this year compared with last year has reached 6.0% at constant prices (while the growth rate at current prices was 12.3%). Most sectors have contributed to this growth. The finance, insurance, real estate and business services sector was the largest contributor at 1.5 percentage points of the overall GDP growth rate, followed by taxes on products sector at 0.9 percentage points. Then came the Transport and Communications Sector, the Manufacturing Sector and the Government Services Sector by 0.8 percentage points each. Then followed by the wholesale and retail sector at 0.5 percentage points, the Construction and Personal and Social Services Sectors, which contributed by 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points to the growth rate, respectively.

       In contrast, the Quarrying industries and the Non-Profit Services Producers Sectors continued to achieve negative growth rates in the previous quarters, which contributed to the drop in the overall growth rate of GDP.

       By measuring the growth as a change percentage for the fourth quarter of 2007 from the corresponding quarter of the previous year, the figures show a growth rate of 6.5% at constant prices. The same above sectors have contributed to this growth except the Quarrying industries sector and the Non-Profit Services Producers Sector, which also achieved negative growth in the fourth quarter compared with the corresponding quarter of 2006.

       The growth trend in the GDP during the years 2001-2007 and the fourth quarter for the same years is shown in the following graph.