The banking system has granted more than 5 trillion rials ($187 million) and 157 trillion rials ($5.9 billion) in interest free loans to home-based businesses and young couples respectively, said the governor of the Central Bank of Iran on Tuesday.
Valiollah Seif, who was attending a conference on marriage held in the ministry of interior, said that marriage loans have been awarded to more than 6 million couples since the CBI established a system for granting interest free loans to newly-wed young couples in early 2008.
The governor attributed one of the main concerns of the government of hope and prudence to be facilitating the process of awarding such loans to encourage young people from lower income groups to get married.
The government has also taken other measure to support low income families, such as providing low interest housing loans for young couples, as well as adopting and enforcing new laws in support of home-based businesses among others, according to Seif.
It is now almost impossible for young people in Tehran to buy a home without financial assistance from others, usually their parents. The crisis needs to be resolved as soon as possible through any means including foreign investment, increasing the amount of banking loans, or other measures to be adopted by the relevant institutions.
