In early October the Jordanian government issued an initial disclosure of its budget projections for 2016, with the headline figure over JD8bn (around $11.3bn), just up on 2015’s $11.1bn budget. The relative stability was achieved largely by a continued freeze in hiring (exempting health and education).

But deficits by the National Electric Power Company (Nepco), which are considered sovereign debt and have helped push Jordan’s debt-to-GDP ratio back up to 80%, are off-budget. (CONTINUED - 390 WORDS)