By Omar Obeidat

AMMAN –– Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are aware of the financial and energy challenges facing Jordan and are willing to extend further support to the Kingdom, Minister of Finance Mohammad Abu Hammour said Sunday.

“Saudi Arabia and the other brotherly Gulf countries have always supported Jordan and will do so to help it overcome its temporary financial difficulties,” he told The Jordan Times, pointing to last week’s visit of Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al Assaf to the Kingdom.

On Thursday, Assaf paid a brief visit to Jordan where he met with Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and Abu Hammour. The talks came on the heels of His Majesty King Abdullah’s visit to the Gulf kingdom early last week where he held a summit meeting with Saudi King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz on bilateral ties and regional developments.

Abu Hammour said he briefed Assaf on the economic challenges facing the country, particularly the modest growth in the gross domestic product, which stood at 2.26 per cent at the first quarter of this year.

He also explained to his Saudi counterpart the impact of the interruptions in natural gas supplies from Egypt on fiscal conditions. He said the frequent disruptions, which amounted to around 80 days this year, caused huge financial losses to the electricity company as power generation plants resorted to heavy fuel and diesel as a substitute to natural gas.

Recently, the new Egyptian government insisted on selling the vital commodity to the energy-poor Kingdom at international prices, ending a previous agreement under which Egypt provided Jordan with gas under preferential terms.