Jordan: Some Sad News This Week

Of the 76 pilgrams that have been found dead so far in the hostel which collapsed in Mecca, 5 of the victims were Jordanians: Kamal Hardan, Ahmad Dahamsheh, Misleh Gbein, Adel Na’ajeh and Sameh Shatanawi. God rest their souls. Ø¥Ù?Ù?ا Ù?Ù?Ù? Ù?Ø¥Ù?Ù?ا Ø¥Ù?Ù?Ù? راجعÙ?Ù? (We belong to Allah and to Allah we return)

In other news, Jordan now ranks 57th on the economic freedom ladder based on the annual study released by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal. Jordan (57th) now ranks 3rd amongst Arab countries, behind Bahrain (25th) and Kuwait (50th).

Jordan scored the highest in Monetary Policy but seems to lag behind when it comes to Trade Policy and Fiscal Burden. The Jordan Times reports this as a “slight improvement” however according the scores Jordan recieved 2.79 last year and 2.80 this year, which leads me to believe other countries did worse.

If anything, Fiscal Burden, Government intervention, Foreign investment were worse this year while Trade Policy remained the same. Though the Wages and Prices and Informality of Market scores have improved.

Realtively speaking the overall scores Jordan has been recieving over the past decade have remained in the same margin.

You can see the countries by rank here and read the whole report here.