The Central Bank of Iran has instructed commercial banks to expedite marriage and childbirth loans.
As per a bylaw seen on the CBI website, lenders are also told to facilitate (ease) the lending process vis-à-vis collateral and guarantees demanded of borrowers.
Banks and credit institutions are required to process the loans within 10 working days after the application and submission of relevant documents.
In recent years banks have been under increasing pressure to lend to newlyweds following concern at the highest echelons of power over declining fertility rates and an ageing population.
The CBI pointed to concern voiced recently by the President Ebrahim Raisi about cumbersome bank rules and the slow pace of granting marriage loans. He ordered the CBI to fix the problem.
Marriage loans are interest-free and should be repaid in seven years. Couples can apply for loans maximum up to two years after the pronouncement of their marriage.
As per provisions of the 2022-23 fiscal budget, each partner tying the knot is eligible for 1.2 billion rials in marriage loans.
To encourage early marriage lenders are required to grant 1.5 billion rials per partner if the bride is below 23 years and the groom under 25.
As per a CBI report, newlyweds took out 190,000 loans to the tune of 255 trillion rials ($796 million) since the beginning of current fiscal up until June 21. The number was 8.5% higher and the value up 71% on an annualized basis
As per the data 90,000 applicants borrowed 36 trillion rials in childbirth loans ($112 million) in the same period.
Banks and credit institutions were obliged in mid-April to lend to new parents to encourage childbirth. The loans are given to parents who had a child in the previous fiscal year (March 2021-22) and after.
Parents are granted 200 million rials for the birth of their first child, 400 million rials for the second, 600 million rials for the third, 800 million rials for the fourth and 1 billion rials for fifth.
Steady Decline in Births
It merits mention that the number of births in Iran has been steadily dropping in recent years largely due to the dire economic conditions and late marriages. About 1.48 million births were recorded between March 2016 and March 2017, 1.36 million the year after, and 1.2 million the year after that — a steady decline of around 100,000 births every year.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has long criticized the low birth rate. He wants the population to grow to 150 million, and in 2012 he enforced a turnaround in the country's family policies that cut off funding for family planning education and contraceptive services.
Since then, a number of family-friendly measures have been introduced, including an extended maternity leave of nine months. Pregnant women are free to take sick leave whenever necessary, with a simple medical certificate, and access to loans and jobs has also been facilitated for families with children.
The measures have been accompanied by a massive effort in state media and institutions, including universities. However, they haven't been enough to convince young people to change their minds, in a country where the average age is almost 31. Many young people just can't perceive having a large family with several children.
A mass exodus from the countryside to already overcrowded cities, continuing US economic sanctions and a persistent drought that has lasted 30 years — many Iranians are struggling. They simply can't imagine bringing children into the world under such circumstances.
