Jordan's budget deficit dropped by more than 50% in the first five months of the year as the government maintained a freeze on non-essential capital spending, Reuters has reported, citing sources at the finance ministry. The shortfall shrank to JD137m ($193m) from JD348.3m in the same period of 2009 after scaling down tens of millions of dollars worth of non-essential capital projects as part of austerity measures to slash its deficit to 6.3% of GDP this year.