In a notification to banks and credit institutions, the Central Bank of Iran announced guidelines for loans to parents to encourage childbirth
Couples who have a child from the last fiscal year (March 2021-22) and years after will be eligible for the loans, the CBI said on its website.
First-time parents can borrow 200 million rials for the first child, 400 million rials for the second, 600 million rials for the third, 800 million rials for fourth one billion rials for the fifth child and after that.
The rare measure is aimed at promoting population growth as the population ages. The CBI move is backed by law and its provisions are envisioned in this year’s budget.
Lenders should lend in the form of Qarzol-Hasanah (interest-free microcredit despite oft-mentioned concerns about the detrimental impact of mandatory lending on banks long saddled with mountains of bad debts and NPLs.
Banking and economic experts have criticized the Majlis for creating new obligations for the banks and compelling them to lend beyond their means.
The government initially projected mandatory lending by banks 6,000 trillion rials ($23 billion) in fiscal 2022-2023. MPs, however, more than doubled that amount to 13,000 trillion rials ($50 billion), raising fresh concerns about the role and viability of banks under the difficult economic conditions plus the billions in unpaid loans.
Ageing Population
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, it is estimated that almost 26% of Iran’s population will be 60 or older by 2050. Population in this age group accounted for 9.3% of the total population in 2016.
The SCI has estimated that about 19% of the population will be 65 years or older by 2050.
In the mid-1950s, the elderly (65 years or older) population was 4% of the total population.
The share of the elderly from the total population started declining in the mid-1960s up until the mid-1990s, from 3.8% to 3.1% and started increasing from the late 1990s to 2016 from 4.4% to 6.1%.
According to the latest CSI data, in 2016 Iran's population was 79,926,270 – 9,430,488 more than in the fiscal 2006.
The SCI conducts population census every ten years. The increase in population from the mid-2000s to 2012 hit 4,653,887 with an average growth of 1.29%, and the increase from 2012 to 2017 was 4,776,601 -- average growth of 1.24%.
After the second wave of population growth, the rate was expected to be more than 1.5%. But apparently socioeconomic factors such as increase in literacy rates, especially among women, urbanization, industrialization, high and rising living costs, tendency toward fewer children… reduced the population growth rate.
