Jordan to receive USD $560 million aid from US and EU

Faced with serious financial shortage, Jordan is expecting to receive a life line of $650 million from the US, the EU and some European countries to finance the state budget, finance minister Jafaar Hassad said today. Nearly $400 million will be handed to the kingdom as grants, and rest, totaling $250 million will be loans paid under easy loan agreements, said the minister, noting that the government also is reaching out to Arab gulf states to fund the budget. The government said it will channel part of the funds to projects in the fields of water, education, energy and business. The government this year said the budget deficit reached JD1.2 billion and the figure could go higher towards end of the year. The government says it needs additional funds to pay for subsidies on energy including fuel and electricity, which could reach up to $ 2 billion. Jordan has been faced with serious challenges to balance its books this year amid dwindling state revenues. The government heavily relies on foreign aid to pay for an army of civil servants, who consume nearly 60 percetn of the capital expenditure.