TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade’s data show that 99.161 trillion rials (about $2.36 billion) has been paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and semi-finished industrial projects with an over 60 percent physical progress during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-May 21).
The mentioned facilities, which are provided for renewing machinery, equipping production units, or completing semi-finished projects, have been paid in the form of bank loans to 1,512 projects and production units, IRNA reported.
The program for offering bank facilities to the SMEs and semi-finished projects was kicked off in February 2019 by the Industry Ministry in collaboration with the Central Bank of Iran, and since then over 7,660 production units and SMEs have registered for receiving the mentioned loans of which 2,766 cases have received the facilities.
Based on the mentioned program, 201.299 trillion rials of facilities (about $4.79 billion) were paid to SMEs and semi-finished projects to support domestic production and maintain or create job opportunities in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).
CBI has defined supporting production as one of its major plans over the past two years.
Former CBI Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati has repeatedly stressed that supporting production units to flourish production is the priority of the country’s banking system.
In early May 2019, Hemmati had outlined CBI plans for neutralizing or relieving the impact of U.S. sanctions on the country’s economy and mentioned providing liquidity and working capital to maintain and boost domestic production as one of those plans.
CBI’s plans take two major approaches, one of which is to secure finance for production activities and also to provide the working capital needed for such activities.
