Commercial banks lent 2.7 quadrillion rials ($78.5 billion), during 10 months to Jan. 20, 2015, latest central bank data shows. Nearly 60 percent of the figure was lent to provide cash flow for companies, Deputy Governor of The Central Bank of Iran Peyman Ghorbani said. Industry took 80.7 percent of all the loans given to provide cash flow. According to the CBI report, half of all the loans went to services, 31 percent to industry and 7.1 percent to agriculture. Money supply rose 22.7 percent in the year to Jan 20, reaching 6.87 quadrillion ($200 billion), the report says. When questioned on the depreciation of the rial in the year to Feb. 19, Ghorbani said, the greenback averaged 32,498 rials per dollar, showing a menial 0.6 percent rise to 2013's 32,289 rial average.
