Question:
Jordan is being swept by a major wave of high prices affecting basic food commodities such as poultry, oils, and red meat, as well as other goods. Is this living crisis transient, or does it have underlying causes pressuring the economic system in Jordan as a result of its regional and international relations? And how true is what is being rumored that the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war are the causes of the high prices?
Answer:
By reviewing the economic situation in Jordan, the following becomes clear:
First: The overarching reason for the wave of high prices in Jordan can be summarized as the state’s failure to care for its citizens (Ri’aya). While the Dead Sea is drying up due to the Jewish entity's exploitation of the Jordan River waters and the waters of the Dead Sea—where the Jews have established health and mineral industrial facilities on its shores—Jordan, in contrast, establishes small facilities that neither nourish nor avail against hunger. Jordan refrains from effective oil and gas exploration in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, which some sources estimate to contain energy resources representing an enormous, first-class wealth. While the state treasury incurs significant losses in importing gas from the Jewish entity to operate power plants, in addition to other gas uses, Jordan, from another perspective, pays no attention to importing gas from the Gulf states rich in it. More importantly, it does not establish nuclear plants to produce electricity and exploit the massive quantities of uranium within Jordanian lands. Despite some "fanfare" about studies in this field, the Jordanian regime, if it were sincere and loyal, is capable of becoming the primary supplier of electricity in the entire region due to the immense nuclear energy stored in its lands.
Second: When people in Jordan began to rely partially on solar energy to cover part of their electricity bills in their homes and factories, the government turned its eyes toward them and hinted at imposing a tax on the sun and wind (wind energy) to stop this trend and limit citizens' benefit from this free energy. (Energy and economics experts denounced the government's intention to impose a fee of two dinars for every kilowatt of generating capacity from solar panels used by citizens in homes, given that these panels cost the government nothing and are installed at the citizen's expense. Jo24, 3/3/2022).
Third: Among the causes of the current wave of high prices in Jordan is the linking of the Jordanian economy to capitalist countries. The US dollar is the reserve of the Central Bank of Jordan that supports the Dinar; thus, the Jordanian Dinar revolves with the Dollar, rising and falling. This means that the state's failure to adopt gold as a reserve has made the Jordanian economy an international dependent of the American economy. One manifestation of this dependency is that America, after the COVID-19 pandemic, began moving toward raising the interest rate (Riba) on loans after it had touched zero. This prompted the Central Bank of Jordan to raise the interest rate (Riba) as well: (The decision of the Central Bank of Jordan to raise interest rates on all its monetary policy tools by 50 basis points as of last Sunday, in line with the US Federal Reserve's decision, raised fears among individual bank debtors and economic sectors that banks would raise interest rates for credit facilities, including personal loans. Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 13/5/2022). Thus, the Central Bank of Jordan followed the decision of the US Federal Reserve, and a segment of Jordanians suddenly found that the usurious interest had risen on their previous loans in commercial banks and that their usurious installments to be paid had increased!
Fourth: Added to this is that the state has burdened the Jordanian people with loans. The state's debt in Jordan has increased (according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Jordan at the end of November last year by 2.32 billion dinars to reach 35.35 billion dinars, constituting 110.3 percent of the GDP, compared to 33.03 billion dinars at the end of 2020, representing 106.5 percent of the GDP for that period... Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, 16/04/2022), meaning the total debt is about 50 billion dollars. These are internal debts from Jordanian banks and external debts. Based on the information provided by the same source, Jordan pays more than 2.7 billion dollars annually from the taxes collected by the state to service these debts (Riba). This is a large figure and represents 37% of the value of the annual taxes the state collects from Jordanian citizens. According to the newspaper Independent Arabia, 12/1/2022: (Jordanians complain of a steady increase in the volume of taxes and fees imposed on them in recent years, as it has come to seize most of their incomes. Jordanians describe their country as the most tax-heavy in the region, as the tax rate on some goods and services, such as cars and fuel, reaches more than 70 percent, while a quarter of Jordanians' income goes to paying taxes...). Thus, it is clear that the state in Jordan works to strip the Jordanian economy of the funds necessary for economic growth and pays them as Riba for its external and internal loans. This increases the burden on economic institutions and the Jordanian citizen, who pays tax on every purchase, whether small or large. This means that the fruit of the taxes gathered by the state goes to waste, especially to external lenders, without the people benefiting. The citizen in Jordan does not feel the caretaking services that the state should provide after collecting taxes. Not only this, but the state, in further deception, uses the excuse that Syrian refugees are among the reasons for the weak economy and its lack of growth. This is all to throw dust in the eyes; if the state in Jordan wanted to benefit from Syrian refugees to support the economy, they would have been an important factor in economic growth, as other countries like Germany did, for example, where they were keen to take them and benefit from them. But the state in Jordan huddled most of them into closed camps as if they were prisoners!
Fifth: Among the related reasons is that vital foundations for people's livelihoods in Jordan have been placed by the regime in the hands of the Jews, as it imports water from them:
1- (A Jordanian official said that Israel "grants" Jordan 30 million cubic meters of water annually under the peace treaty signed between the two countries in 1994. BBC, 9/7/2021). The level of the Jordan River is dropping to the point of drying up because of the Jordanian regime's agreement for the Jews to loot the Jordan River from its upper springs, while the Jordanians' water is subject to the satisfaction of the Jewish entity, which gives, withholds, increases, and decreases. (An Israeli official was quoted as saying that the Jordanian-Israeli agreement will practically double the amount of water that Israel will supply to Jordan this year - during the period from May 2021 to May 2022. Israel has already supplied Jordan with 50 million cubic meters so far, according to the Israeli official. BBC, 9/7/2021). As for the prices of water that Jordan "imports" from the Jewish entity, they are usually kept secret due to their atrocity and the apparent corruption in them. However, some news leaks that those prices reach 40 US cents per cubic meter, to which are added exorbitant prices for pumping and refining reaching 22 cents per cubic meter (Al Jazeera Net, 6/6/2011). According to these prices, water becomes one of the major obstacles to the economy after the government surrendered itself and its people to the Jewish entity to take the pure water of the Jordan River and give Jordan water of questionable purity.
2- Likewise, the Jordanian regime has deliberately linked Jordan to gas from the Jewish entity after it used to take it from the Gulf states, as if Jordan was waiting for the Jews' discoveries of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. It tore up its agreements with the Gulf states and wove them with the Jews. (The "Jordanian/Israeli" agreement on importing gas stipulates supplying Jordan with about 45 billion cubic meters of gas over 15 years, starting from January 2020. This agreement comes amidst political tension between Israel and Jordan and popular and parliamentary opposition to this agreement. Independent Arabia, 1/1/2020). Nevertheless, it was concluded despite the tension and opposition!
Sixth: Through these matters mentioned above, the real reasons for the deterioration of the Jordanian economy become clear, where the unemployment rate has reached 42% (Independent Arabia, 1/3/2019), and the talk about economic reform is devoid of action, especially since government corruption increases the waste and drainage of money! This continuous economic deterioration in Jordan is the very economic policy that the kufr states, America and Britain, command Jordan to follow, and exactly what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands from Jordan. This policy continues; whenever these countries fear that the people might revolt against the regime, they throw some aid to it. Among that aid are some grants provided by the IMF to alleviate the burden of debt service, i.e., to pay the interest on the usurious loans that the state in Jordan borrowed. Among the types of such aid is also that Britain gathered more than 60 countries and 450 financial institutions in an international conference held in London to support the Jordanian economy, in which the Jordanian government participated with most of its ministers... (Independent Arabia, 1/3/2019). But all this aid is directed at preventing the Ummah's revolution to reclaim its rights.
Seventh: Thus, the underlying reasons behind the current wave of high prices ravaging the Jordanian people become clear. These are the primary and real reasons behind this wave of high prices. As for the other reasons for the global wave of high prices that the media across the world is buzzing with, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and reasons related to the Russian war in Ukraine, although they have an economic impact... these can be eliminated or mitigated if the causes of economic imbalance explained above are addressed correctly according to the rules of Shari'ah. Otherwise, the country's misery will increase and prices will soar, and Allah has spoken the truth:
وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَنْ ذِكْرِي فَإِنَّ لَهُ مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكاً
"And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life." (QS. Ta-Ha [20]: 124)
This will continue until the Ummah decides its matter, binds its heart to its Aqeedah, holds fast to the Rope of Allah, entrusts its leadership to the sincere and aware among its sons, and collapses the policy of the major powers by toppling their agents and establishing its Rightly Guided Khilafah on the method of Prophethood. It will then fill the earth with justice and prosperity, and then its life will turn into honor after humiliation, prosperity after poverty, and empowerment after submission and dependency.
إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَذِكْرَى لِمَنْ كَانَ لَهُ قَلْبٌ أَوْ أَلْقَى السَّمْعَ وَهُوَ شَهِيدٌ
"Indeed in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or who listens while he is present [in mind]." (QS. Qaf [50]: 37)
7th of Dhu al-Qi'dah 1443 AH 6/6/2022 CE