Jordanian Lower House endorses 2015 general budget

The Lower House of Parliament, on Wednesday, endorsed the 2015 budget by a majority vote following four days of extensive deliberations. The deficit in this year's JD8.09 billion budget was put by the government at JD688 million but the parliament's committee on finance lowered it to JD468 million. The committee also lowered current expenditures to JD6.701 billion.
Public revenues are projected at JD7.408 billion; of which JD6.408 billion local revenues and JD1.128 billion as foreign grants. With regards to total public expenditure in 2015, it was set at JD8.096 billion. Following the house's endorsement of the budget, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said inflation will be below 3 per cent during the current year and that unemployment dropped by 1.07 per cent in 2014 despite competitiveness from Syrian workers.
He pledged that the government will not raise bread prices but at the same time will explore ways to make sure only Jordanian benefit from the subsidy on this staple. He promised to look into demands aired by lawmakers concerning development of their regions.