Jordan’s Economic Crisis: PM Reshuffles Gov’t to Soothe Anger
Local Editor
Jordan's Prime Minister Hani Mulki reshuffled his cabinet on Sunday and appointed the king's chief of staff as his special deputy for economic affairs in an apparent bid to soothe widespread anger over rising hardship and flagging growth.
Mulki's reshuffle, his sixth since coming to power in May 2016, comes three days after hundreds of protesters in the city of Salt, 30 km west of the capital Amman, demanded his resignation and called for the Jordanian king to force the government to roll back price hikes and end high-level corruption.
Earlier this month Mulki avoided a vote of no-confidence in parliament after deputies sought to bring down the government over the price hikes that raised taxes on most consumer and food items and some fuel items. This was followed by a doubling of the prices of subsidized bread.
Jafar Hassan, chief of staff of the office of Jordan's King Abdullah, takes up the post of deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs, a role that had been left vacant in Mulki's previous cabinet.
Earlier this year, Mulki imposed steep IMF-mandated tax hikes to cut rising public debt that have hit incomes of ordinary Jordanians, causing his popularity to plummet.
Finance Minister Omar Malhas kept his job in the reshuffle.
Politicians and economists say the tough fiscal consolidation plan and the price hikes, the widest in range in recent years, worsen the plight of poorer Jordanians.
Removing subsidies has triggered civil unrest in the past. Unlike previous hikes, only a few scattered protests have taken place, but slogans carried by demonstrators in the rally in Salt were the most critical so far.
"We will wage an intifada [Uprising] until prices go down. There are limits to our patience," protesters chanted. Some indirectly blamed the monarch. On Friday the authorities sent gendarmerie reinforcements to Salt.
In recent years Jordan's economic growth has been hit by regional conflicts weighing on investor sentiment and as consumer demand generated by Syrian refugees staying in Jordan has receded, according to the IMF.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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