Jordan's external debt has fallen to 3.6 billion Jordanian dinars (about 5.1 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the third quarter in 2008, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Thursday.
This registered a decrease of some 31.4 percent from the level at the end of 2007 when it stood at 5.25 billion dinars, the Finance Ministry's figures showed.
The ministry attributed the significant drop in external debt volume to a debt purchase deal that the kingdom signed in March with 10 Paris Club member states.
Meanwhile, the budget deficit for the first three quarters of this year amounted to 381.6 million dinars while a surplus of 84.9million dinars was recorded during the same period of last year.
The ministry said the climb in spending was mainly the result of higher military allocations, pensions and civil workers' salaries.
Excluding external assistance, the real budget deficit amounted to 874.6 million dinars by the end of third quarter, the figure added.
Official figures showed that foreign assistance extended to Jordan in the first three quarters of 2008 to 493 million dinars. (1 U.S. dollar= 0.708 Jordanian dinars)
Source: Xinhua
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