Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 22
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
The Iranian banking system paid 5,483.7 trillion rials ($169.1 billion based on official exchange rate of $1=32,430 rials) in loans last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017), the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said.
The figure indicates a rise by 31.4 percent compared to the preceding year, according to the report.
Over $21.78 billion in loans were paid to the various sectors in 12th Iranian calendar month of Esfand (Feb. 20-March 20, 2017).
The country’s banks paid 2,178.78 trillion rials to the service sector during the 12-month period.
Along with service sector, the highest amounts of loan have been paid to industry and mining (1,609.2 trillion rials), commerce (724.28 trillion rials), housing (501.2 trillion rials) and agriculture (466.8 trillion rials) sectors.
According to World Bank, Iran’s GDP growth stood at 6.4 percent in 2016, largely as a result of the oil sector’s bounce back, both in production and exports, following the removal of sanctions in January 2016 through the nuclear deal. The figure is expected to stand at 4 percent, 4.1 percent and 4.2 percent in 2017-2019 respectively.
Iran has been struggling with bad loans over the past few years.
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