AMMAN, Nov. 2 (Petra) – The government on Monday issued Official Circular No. 17 of 2026, establishing the binding operational guidelines for drafting the FY 2027 General Budget Law and the accompanying Regulation of Ministry and Department Formations.

Under the state circular, the government introduced a targeted cost-of-living adjustment, approving a monthly wage top-up of JD 30 for public-sector civil servants, military personnel, and pensioners whose gross monthly income falls below the JD 600 threshold. The directive also accounts for standard annual step-increments and statutory pension cost-of-living indexation across the civil and military services.

All ministries, government departments, and sovereign public units are instructed to submit their detailed medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEF) for 2027–2029 to the General Budget Department by November 5, strictly adhering to designated fiscal ceilings and integrating governorate capital expenditure plans.

The fiscal roadmap aligns with Royal directives to execute the second phase of the Economic Modernization Vision and Public Sector Modernization Executive Program (2026–2029), balancing social safety net expansions with structural fiscal consolidation and debt-to-GDP reduction targets.

The macroeconomic baseline for the 2027 budget projects real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, leveling at 3.0 percent annually for 2028 and 2029. Nominal GDP growth is forecast at 5.6 percent in 2027, stabilizing at 5.5 percent over the following two fiscal years. Inflation is benchmarked at 2.3 percent for 2027, easing to 2.2 percent in 2028–2029. Export volume growth is targeted at 9.2 percent in 2027, while import growth is projected at 8.2 percent.

On the expenditure front, the circular mandates prioritizing public-private partnership (PPP) capital commitments–specifically public equity participation in the National Water Carrier and National Railway projects–alongside allocations for Strategic Commodity Price Stabilization, covering bread subsidies, LPG cylinder caps, and strategic grain reserves.

The directive restricts recruitment exclusively to budgeted vacancies approved under qualitative workload assessments, while enforcing strict administrative austerity measures across utilities, government fleet operations, and external consultancy hires. Furthermore, new major capital projects for FY 2027 must be vetted through the National Registry of Investment Projects (NRIP), accompanied by comprehensive climate-risk impact assessments prior to funding approval.

//Petra// AA