The Central Bank of Jordan on Saturday decided to slash key interest rates by 50 basis points to spur the country's sluggish economy, a CBJ statement said.The decision, which goes into effect as of Sunday, provides for cutting the discount rate to 4.25 per cent from 4.75 per cent and the repurchase rate (repo) to 4 per cent from 4.5 per cent.
"The step is designed to ease credit policies and enable the national economy to accomplish higher growth rates following its tangible slowdown in 2009," the statement said. A dramatic increase in the country's reserves of foreign currencies to more than 10 billion dollars, has encouraged the CBJ to adopt the new interest rate cut, the second in less than two months.