TEHRAN - Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has referred the instructions to provide required finance for the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) to the country’s banking system, IRIB reported.

The CBI is going to offer the mentioned financial support aiming to pave the way for boosting national production and to support economic enterprises in order to fulfill the slogan of the year which is “surge in production”, while directing the liquidity toward the productive sectors.

According to the CBI directive, operating banks are required to pay more attention to the issue of financing small and medium-sized enterprises due to the sensitivity of economic conditions, more than before and with a greater sense of responsibility, and despite limited resources and existing credit problems prioritize the facilities in such a way that it is possible to achieve the goals of “surge in production”.

As reported, some 37,462 SMEs were provided with 544.703 trillion rials (about $13.2 billion) of facilities by the banking system in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

In early May 2019, the CBI Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati outlined the bank’s 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