An inflation rate of only 2%, a stable currency and reserves at
$3.5 billion demonstrate the stress Jordan has put on having a
tight and rigorously enforced monetary policy.
This has not always made Umayya Toukan, governor and chairman of
the board at the Central Bank of Jordan, popular with the business
community and some government ministers. He has been accused of
keeping interest rates so high that growth is strangled as
investment decisions are delayed. The country's best companies have
to borrow at between 7% and 8%.
Toukan is unrepentant and rejects suggestions that interest
rates are too high, pointing out that 5% growth is near the target
level. "We...
