Abdel Karim al-Kabariti, chairman of Jordan-Kuwait Bank has said that a further downturn in the economy has brought the lender's first-half profit lower by 18.8% to JD23.5m, Reuters has reported. Gross income fell 10.75% year-on-year to JD53.5m, while customer deposits were down 5% from the end of 2009 to JD1.2bn. There are signs the downturn in Jordan is steeper than last year and the continued slowdown in economic activity had hit the results, which were in line with the bank's expectations, he said.