The stressful economic conditions in the Kingdom, one of the causes of which is the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, in addition to the living pressures left by economic policies during the past years, made some of the sectors listed on the list of the shadow economy expand competitively, as studies indicate that this segment ranges in size from 15 to 30 of GDP.
Even in the capital Amman and the main cities, the hardship of life and the increasing burdens pushed many citizens to work overtime, which has become a dominant feature of most workers. Teachers resort to private tutoring in institutes and other places, and other employees resort to transportation work such as taxi drivers after their work ends. The official, not to mention the spread of thousands of stalls along the main streets.
These sectors are self-revenue-producing, but they are not included in the national accounts and are far from economic control and management. They often represent illegal activities or informal economies. In sum, their actions and results are not reflected in the performance of the national economy.
The shadow economy is not new or innovative. It has existed in Jordan for decades and has both visible and hidden practitioners for various and varied reasons.
In this regard, many experts believe that the shadow economy has grown significantly in Jordan with the increase in factors of openness to the world and the expansion of economic exchanges of all kinds.
Even expatriates abroad, no one really knows their total number abroad. Some say that they exceeded half a million, others talk about 700,000 expatriates, and others talk about a million Jordanians working abroad. Of course, their annual remittances amount to approximately 4 billion dollars annually, a figure he sees Some are modest in relation to the nature of Jordanians’ business abroad, but the important thing is that the large part of them during their stay in the summer during the months of July and August carry cash with them, which they spend directly in various aspects of daily life. Any body was an estimate of what they spend during their stay.
