Interview with the WVS-7 PI for Jordan Dr Fares Braizat

Fares Braizat (WVS Principal Investigator in Jordan) was interviewed for this The New York Times piece about protests against the latest austerity policy in Jordan and following resignation of prime minister Hani Mulki on Monday:

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/world/middleeast/jordan-strike-protest.html

Jordan’s Prime Minister Quits as Protesters Demand an End to Austerity

By Rana F. Sweis

Escalating economic pressures on Jordan threatened to turn into a political crisis on Monday, as the prime minister resigned amid nationwide protests against proposed tax and price increases in a country that has suffered through years of declining living standards.

Prime Minister Hani Mulki stepped down after two years in office, but there was no sign that his departure would mollify the protesters or change unpopular austerity policies proposed by the government and backed by the International Monetary Fund. [...]

The country’s economic picture is already gloomy, with the official unemployment rate above 18 percent and the poverty rate even higher. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees live in Jordan, compounding the country’s economic troubles, while the civil war in Syria has also cut off what had been one of Jordan’s most important trading partners.

Incomes in Jordan have stagnated for years, as prices have soared. Amman, the capital, ranks as the most expensive city in the Arab world, and it has a higher cost of living than much wealthier cities, like Dubai, London and Washington, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“Successive governments have failed in the eyes of the public,” said Fares Braizat, chairman of NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions, a research, polling and consulting firm based in Amman. “This is a statement about bad public economic policy planning and execution.” [...]

Read the full text here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/04/world/middleeast/jordan-strike-protest.html

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