Jordanians are bracing themselves for tougher days ahead as the government seeks ways to raise additional revenues to support its treasury in 2018, in accordance with an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In an interview with the official news agency, Petra, on Sept. 13, King Abdullah II said that Jordanians are facing hardships due to economic challenges and that “the reality everyone has to understand is that no one is going to help us if we do not help ourselves first. We have to rely on ourselves, first and foremost.”

Local observers took this statement to mean two things: that the king supports the government’s policy under a controversial economic reform program with the IMF, and that the kingdom could no longer rely on grants coming from oil-rich Gulf countries.

A five-year, $5 billion Gulf Cooperation Council grant that was awarded to Jordan in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011 expired last year, and there are no signs that it will be renewed. Qatar had failed to pay its share of $1.25 billion.

Under the 36-month agreement approved by the IMF in August 2016, Jordan would receive about $723 million in loans over three years to support the country’s economic and financial reform program. Under the program, the Jordanian government is expected to adopt fiscal measures to lower public debt, currently standing at 26.2 billion Jordanian dinars (around $37 billion), constituting 94.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), and broaden structural reforms to trigger economic growth. Despite a previous agreement with the IMF that expired in August 2015, state budgets continued to suffer from deficits — $1.2 billion, or 2.8% of GDP, for 2017. Experts now agree that the declared target for the local treasury to achieve a surplus by 2019 may not be realistic.