Baku, Azerbaijan, May 20
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran is negotiating to receive new loans from the World Bank for implementing development projects.
Iranian deputy economy minister Behrouz Alishiri said two groups of experts from the World Bank have recently come to the country to study the situation for paying the financial assists, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on May 20.
"The World Bank has not paid any loan to Iran for the past four or five years, seemingly due to political reasons," he explained.
In September 2013, the World Bank removed Iran from its list of deadbeat borrowers Friday, saying the Islamic Republic had paid outstanding loan amounts.
The Bank said that its key lending unit, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, "has moved all loans to the Islamic Republic of Iran from non-performing status to performing status following the payment of all overdue amounts on these loans."
The Bank had placed Iran's account on non-performing status on July 16, 2013, when the country fell six months in arrears in paying $79.1 million on nearly $700 million in outstanding loan principal.
The Bank has not lent any new money to Iran since 2005.