The Central Bank of Iran said Sunday foreign debt was near $6.42 billion by the end of the eighth calendar month to Nov 22 -- $2.64 billion lower on fiscal March 2021-22.
Medium and long-term debt was $4.67 billion or 75% of the total and short-term debt in the range of $1.74 billion. Short-term debt includes all debt with original maturity of one year or less plus the interest on long-term debt.
The country was unable to attract foreign investment because of the extended US economic blockade, cumbersome laws and economic instability, among others.
Tehran’s external debt averaged $15.54 billion from 1993 until 2020, reaching an all-time high of $28.6 billion in 2007 and a record low of $5.1 billion in 2014, according to Trading Economics, which sources financial and economic data from countries across the world.
The last International Debt Report by the World Bank Group showed Iran's foreign debt was $10.349 billion by the end of 2021. This was noticeably higher compared to the year before when it was $5.433 billion.
Iran’s long-term foreign debt reached $1.06 billion at the end of last year, down from $1.313 billion reported in 2020. The data showed short-term debt rose to $2.508 billion in 2021 from $2.067 billion in the year before.
The IDR, formerly International Debt Statistics (IDS), is an annual publication of the World Bank featuring external debt statistics and analysis for the 121 low- and middle-income countries that report to the World Bank Debt Reporting System (DRS).
The report put Iran's use of International Monetary Fund credit at $6.781 billion by the end of 2021, whereas it was at $2.054 billion in 2020.
Iran settled more than $254 million and paid $46 million in interest on its foreign debt in 2022, the group said.
As per the report, Iran's external debt stocks to export ratio stood at 13% in 2021, up by 3 percentage points on the year before. The short term to external debt ratio was 24% in 2021, considerably lower than 38% in the year before.
Most of Iran’s foreign borrowing in the past three years was related to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Tehran received $50 million from the World Bank to help the health sector cope with the fatal disease.
Iran solicited multilateral development banks for funds, in which it is a member, namely the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank.
