TEHRAN - Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade’s data show that 73.025 trillion rials (about $254.4 million) 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 five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22).

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 1,206 projects and production units, IRNA reported.

The program for offering bank facilities to SMEs and semi-finished projects was kicked off in February 2019 by the Industry Ministry in collaboration with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), and since then over 7,542 production units and SMEs have registered for receiving the mentioned loans.

Based on the said program, 201.299 trillion rials of facilities (about $701.39 million) were set to be paid to SMEs and semi-finished projects to support domestic production and maintain or create job opportunities of which so far 110.4 trillion rials (about $384.6 million) has been paid.

In total, the Iranian banking system provided 240.314 trillion rials (about $837.3 million) of financial facilities to various production units over the previous Iranian calendar year.

The number of loans paid in the previous year increased by 13 percent compared to the Iranian calendar year 1399 (ended on March 20, 2021) while the value of the paid facilities also increased by 7.3 percent.

Over the past three years, CBI has been collaborating with the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry for implementing a program based on which bank facilities are provided to SMEs and semi-finished projects.

In early May 2019, Former CBI Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati 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