Khaberni - Jordan occupied the 1st position globally in price stability according to the results of the Global Competitiveness Index 2025 issued by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), which reflects the effectiveness of the monetary policy, credibility of the exchange rate linkage system, and their ability to reduce levels of economic uncertainty and reduce risk premium, compared to a number of European economies that experienced inflationary pressures and financial imbalances during the same period, according to a report issued by the Jordan Economic Forum.
The forum revealed on Wednesday an extended analytical report about the performance of the kingdom on the Global Competitiveness Index 2025 issued by (IMD), providing a detailed interpretative reading of Jordan's improvement to rank 47th globally among 69 economies, registering an advancement by one rank compared with 2024, and an increase in the total points from 55.51 points to 57.79 points, an increase of 2.28 points in overall performance.
The Jordan Economic Forum concluded that Jordan's competitive gains are real and significant, but they remain contingent on its capacity to transform stability and institutionalization into higher productivity, investment, and employment.
The Forum confirmed that the next phase requires a shift from progress based on stability to transformation based on productivity, by enhancing job creation in the private sector, raising skill alignment, accelerating innovation, diversifying exports, and handling investment promotion as a central economic tool.
Economic Size
The report clarified, according to a press release issued by the forum, that the methodology of the Global Competitiveness Index does not measure the size of the economy or income level, but focuses on the efficiency of the economic system and its ability to organize its institutions, policies, markets, and infrastructure in a way that transforms available resources into sustainable economic performance, where the index relies on more than 300 sub-indicators spread across 4 main pillars: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
The report affirmed that the sustainability of Jordan's competitive progress will depend on its ability to address the most important structural challenge, which is to achieve inclusive growth based on productivity that generates widespread job opportunities and transforms competitiveness into tangible economic outcomes.
The forum indicated that Jordan's improvement in ranking in recent years reflects gradual progress supported by overall economic stability and predictability of public policies, alongside a number of institutional strengths, particularly in price stability indicators, inflation control, clarity of the regulatory framework, and effectiveness of some operational aspects in public administration.
At the level of overall performance during the past decade, the report clarified that Jordan's ranking has fluctuated within a specific range, ranging between ranks 47 and 58, registering its best performance in 2025 at rank 47, compared to the weakest performance in 2020 at rank 58, reflecting the Jordanian economy's ability to maintain a relatively stable competitive position despite structural constraints and regional pressures.
In detailing the axes, the report showed that the business efficiency axis was the strongest point, with Jordan ranking 33rd out of 69 countries, advancing one rank from 2024, attributed to improvements in managerial practices within companies, and progress in the labor market axis within business efficiency from rank 29 to rank 21.
Labor Market Axis
The forum explained that the labor market axis within the IMD methodology focuses on the readiness of the business environment from the perspective of companies, including the availability of competencies and skills, the priority of training employees, wage levels, and labor costs, not on actual employment outcomes.
Jordan stood out in a number of qualitative indicators, ranking 3rd globally in the percentage of women in managerial positions, 7th in foreign employment, and 8th in early entrepreneurial activity.
The report highlighted that the price index saw a noticeable improvement by rising from rank 19 to rank 11.
The forum highlighted a central paradox where the competitive improvement coincided with continuing pressures in the labor market, with Jordan ranking 69 out of 69 countries in employment rate, 67th in youth unemployment, and 66th in total unemployment, with the unemployment rate continuing at 21.4%, and economic participation at 17.1%
In the government efficiency axis, Jordan ranked 39th out of 69 countries in 2025 compared to rank 37 in 2024, where Jordan scored notable strengths, notably ranking 1st in low costs of dismissal, 5th in bureaucracy efficiency, along with advanced performance in efficient income tax collection.
Conversely, the ranking of the institutional framework dropped from 36 to 39, despite an improvement in public finances from 42 to 40.
The report referred to progress in the administrative modernization path, where 48 out of 51 defined priorities for 2023 were accomplished, with an execution rate of 94%, confirming that the cumulative impact of these reforms has not fully reflected on the index ranking due to the accelerated improvement in the performance of competing countries, and continued financial pressures and rising public debt to about 95.9% of gross domestic product.
Infrastructure Axis
The infrastructure axis recorded general improvement by raising Jordan’s rank to 52 compared to 55 in 2024, with the technological infrastructure rank rising from 58 to 53, while the basic infrastructure declined from 58 to 62. Jordan ranked 10th in telecommunications sector investment, 12th in the number of graduates in scientific disciplines, and 14th in positive population growth.
On a regional level, Jordan ranked 7th among 7 participating Arab countries, coming immediately after the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in a context more reflective of differing economic development models than efficiency gaps.
Internationally, the forum noted that Jordan’s ranking was close to countries like Italy, whose economy was more than $2.3 trillion in 2024, with a per capita gross domestic product of more than $40,000, and an unemployment rate at 6.8% in the same year, yet ranked 43rd globally, with a slight difference from Jordan. In contrast, the per capita gross domestic product in Jordan in 2024 was about $4,618, recording a real growth rate of about 2.5%, and an unemployment rate at 21.4% in the same year, noting that Jordan’s rank in the report came before a number of European Union countries, Turkey, and India.
The report added that foreign direct investment flows to Jordan in 2024 amounted to about 3.1% of gross domestic product, reflecting a level of relative confidence compared to larger countries suffering from investment fluctuations.
