Azerbaijan, Baku, May 23/Trend M. Moezzi
The Iranian Central Bank will reduce the interest rate on export credit facilities in rials by two percent while dropping foreign currency credit facilities by one percent.
The move by the Bank's Monetary and Credit Council is designed to help domestic production, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reports.
Until now, there was no difference in interest rates for import and export facilities.
At its meeting last night the Council also ruled that checkbooks will be issued to only those Iranians who have a good banking history and no outstanding balances.
In April, the Central Bank issued a report saying almost $18 billion
(USD) in checks written by Iranians were returned over an eight month period. In the first eight months of last year (Iran's solar year ended on March 19) one out of every eight checks (12 percent) was returned because of insufficient funds. That's a five percent increase over the year before.