World Bank Team Presents the First-of-its-kind Study "About Poverty in Jordan"

AMMAN------- July 8, 2014 --------- The Economic Policy Development Forum at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum organized a dialogue session entitled 'Poverty in Jordan: Some Recent Findings' with a team from the World Bank chaired by the Bank's Economic Expert, Dr. Umar Serajuddin.

The session was attended by the Head of the Forum, HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh and a number of the Forum members, experts, and civil society representatives and moderated by the member of the Forum and the economic expert Dr. Youssef Mansour.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh welcomed Dr. Serajuddin and the members of the World Bank delegation and highlighted their efforts in achieving this important study about poverty in Jordan.

Dr. Serajuddin presented the study that had been prepared by the World Bank Expert Team in participation with experts from the Ministry of Planning and the Department of Statistics. The study based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey in order to specify poverty levels in Jordan on quarterly and on yearly basis. Dr. Serajuddin stated that the study shows that some families fall below the poverty line at certain times of the year while they are above the poverty line at other times.

He said that according to the study 18% of the Jordanians are vulnerable to poverty during certain times of the year and 14.45% of the population languishing below the poverty line in most months of the year.

He added that researchers linked the Family Income and Expenditure Statistic that is conducted once every four years due to the high cost and effort it needs with the Employment and Unemployment Survey that is conducted every three months. This linkage helps to derive pillars on which Jordanian citizens, planners, and policy makers can calculate and predict the poverty levels constantly instead of every four years; at the time of the Family Survey.

During the session, many questions were asked about the outcomes of the study and the importance of the indicators and the poverty rates data in the social and economic development plans and in the way to get out of the dilemma.