AMMAN: Jordanian expats and Arabs seeking residence and vacation in the Kingdom are driving demand for the dinar, according to a leading money changer.
President of the Jordanian Exchange Association Alaa Eddine Diraniyeh told The Jordan Times Saturday that cash transfers by Jordanians working abroad, particularly in the Gulf region, have been surging in the past weeks either to buy properties or for deposits in local banks.
Remittances of Jordanian expatriates, according to the Central Bank of Jordan, reached $1.2 billion in the first four months of this year, up by 3.4 per cent compared with $1.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2014.
Ramadan is expected to start June 17 or 18, depending on the sighting of the new moon. Meanwhile, the Yemen crisis seems to have prompted Yemeni investors to move to the Kingdom, according to Diraniyeh. He noted that over the past months, a good number of Yemeni businesspeople sought residence in the Kingdom to start investments, indicating that the influx of wealthy Yemenis has driven up demand for the domestic currency.
