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Jordan is classified by the World Bank as a country of "upper-middle income".[12] The economy has grown at an average rate of 4.3% per annum since 2005.[79] Approximately 13% of the population lives on less than US$3 a day.[79]The GDP per capita rose by 351% in the 1970s, declined 30% in the 1980s, and rose 36% in the 1990s.[80][not in citation given] Jordan has a free trade agreement with Turkey.[81] Jordan also enjoys advanced status with the EU.[82]The Jordanian economy is beset by insufficient supplies of water, oil and other natural resources.[3] Other challenges include high budget deficit, high outstanding public debt, high levels of poverty and unemployment.[79] Unemployment in 2012 is nominally around 13%, but is thought by many analysts to be as high as a quarter of the working-age population.[83] Youth unemployment is nearly 30%.[83] Jordan has few natural resources and a small industrial base.[83] Corruption is particularly pronounced and the use of wasta widespread.[83] Jordan also suffers from a brain drain of its most talented workers.[83] Remittances from Jordanian expatriates are a major source of foreign exchange.[84]Due to slow domestic growth, high energy and food subsidies and a bloated public-sector workforce, Jordan usually runs annual budget deficits. These are partially offset by international aid.[83]Jordan’s economy is relatively well diversified.[84] Trade and finance combined account for nearly one-third of GDP; transportation and communication, public utilities, and construction account for one-fifth, and mining and manufacturing constitute nearly that proportion.[84] Despite plans to increase the private sector, the state remains the dominant force in Jordan’s economy.[84] The government employs between one-third and two-thirds of all workers.[83]In 2000, Jordan joined the World Trade Organization and signed the Jordan–United States Free Trade Agreement; in 2001, it signed an association agreement with the European Union.[85]Net official development assistance to Jordan in 2009 totalled USD 761 million; according to the government, approximately two-thirds of this was allocated as grants, of which half was direct budget support.[79]The Great Recession and the turmoil caused by the Arab Spring have depressed Jordan's GDP growth, impacting export-oriented sectors, construction, and tourism.[3] Tourist arrivals have dropped sharply since 2011, hitting an important source of revenue and employment.[86]In an attempt to quell popular discontent, the government promised in 2011 to keep energy and food prices artificially low while raising wages and pensions in the public sector.[86] Jordan's finances have also been strained by a series of natural gas pipeline attacks in Egypt, causing it to substitute more expensive heavy-fuel oils to generate electricity.[3] $500 million was required to cover the resulting fuel shortage.[86]In August 2012, the International Monetary Fund agreed to give Jordan a three-year $2-billion loan. As part of the deal, Jordan was expected to cut spending.[83] In November 2012, the government cut subsidies on fuel,[87] increasing its price. As a result, large scale protests broke out across the country.[83]AmmanJordan's total foreign debt in 2012 was $22 billion, representing 72% of its GDP. Roughly two-thirds of this total had been raised on the domestic market, with the remaining owed to overseas lenders.[87] In late November 2012, the budgetary shortfall was estimated at around $3 billion, or about 11% of GDP.[87] Growth was expected to reach 3% by the end of 2012 and the IMF predicts GDP will increase by 3.5% in 2013, rising to 4.5% by 2017.[87] The inflation rate was forecast at 4.5% by the end of 2012.[87]The official currency in Jordan is the Jordanian dinar, which is pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights (SDRs), equivalent to an exchange rate of 1 US$ ≡ 0.709 dinar, or approximately 1 dinar ≡ 1.41044 dollars.[88]The proportion of skilled workers in Jordan is among the highest in the region. Agriculture in Jordan constituted almost 40% of GNP in the early 1950s; on the eve of the Six-Day War in June 1967, it was 17%.[89] By the mid-1980s, the agricultural share of Jordan's GNP was only about 6%.[89] Jordan has hosted the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa six times and held it for the seventh time in 2013 at the Dead Sea.[90]
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