TEHRAN – Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade announced that in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), some 256.17 trillion rials (nearly $6.1 billion) worth of bank loans have been offered to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and semi-finished industrial projects with an over 60 percent physical progress.

Over 37500 projects and production units received bank loans in the mentioned time span, IRNA reported on Monday.

Last week, the industry ministry released a report which indicated that banks and credit institutions provided both industrial and mining sectors with 300 trillion rials (about $7.14 billion) worth of loans in the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 21-May 21), registering a 41.5 percent rise year on year.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, the total amount of loans offered to the country’s economic sector stood at 923 trillion rials (about $21.97 billion) in the mentioned period.

Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has defined supporting production as its major plan in the current Iranian calendar year, which is named the Year of Pickup in Production, and in this regard CBI Governor

Abdolnaser Hemmati has several times stressed that supporting production units to flourish production is the priority of the country’s banking system in current year.

In early May, the official 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.

EF/MA