Jordan CBDC Tracker

CBDC Information

CBDC Status

Research

Economic Information

GDP

$47,451,499,859

Population

11,337,052

Government Information

Form of Government

Closed Autocracy

Freedom Rankings

Cato and Fraser Human Freedom Index:

6.32/10

Freedom House Index:

3.3/10

Reporters Without Borders Freedom Index:

4.27/10

Jordan is currently in the research phase. During a Lower House Economy and Investment Committee meeting, Central Bank governor Adel Al Sharkas said, “With regards to the plans to issue a Jordanian [CBDC], a study is underway to develop a legal digital currency linked to Jordanian dinar.”

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Jordan earned a 33 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report. As Freedom House noted in the report, oppression and corruption are major issues for Jordan. The issuance or adoption of a CBDC in Jordan could worsen these issues.

“Jordanian media laws are restrictive, vague, and arbitrarily enforced,” according to Freedom House. “Various statutes penalize defamation, criticism of the king or state institutions, harming Jordan’s relations with foreign states, blasphemy, and any content considered to lack objectivity.” Freedom House further found that the government will “appoint the editors and control the finances of several media outlets.” Unfortunately, a CBDC could be used as another tool in this effort. Across the world, governments have often turned to freezing and seizing the money of activists, political rivals, and protestors to undermine the opposition. A CBDC would make such initiatives easier by allowing governments to take direct control of each citizen’s finances.

“Anticorruption efforts are undermined by a lack of genuinely independent enforcement institutions and restrictions on investigative journalism and civil society activism,” according to Freedom House. The existence of pervasive corruption is a major concern with CBDCs because it calls into question any promises that might be made by the government to limit surveillance, control, or other risks of CBDCs. Furthermore, the existence of corruption calls into question whether CBDC policies might be designed to exert political favoritism through subsidies, price controls, or other targeted restrictions.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.