Iran Sovereign Wealth Fund Reports Rise in L/Cs

The National Development Fund of Iran–the main sovereign wealth fund– has announced that it has recorded a year-on-year increase of “50% plus” in opening letters of credit during the previous fiscal year that ended in March.

The announcement came during a meeting of the NDFI’s board of trustees on Saturday which was presided by President Hassan Rouhani,    

“The volume is the highest compared to all the years of the fund’s activity,” Ahmad Doust-Hosseini, the fund director, was quoted as saying by banker.ir.

In the performance report of the NDFI provided at the meeting, it was said that during the previous fiscal year, the fund allocated more than $3.3 billion of its resources to the banks to be used for development projects.

This indicates a 28% increase on the previous year.  Furthermore, the fund lent more than $6.2 billion to the Central Bank of Iran during the previous year for new projects.

At the meeting, the NDFI budget for the current fiscal was approved with  amendments in regulations for allocating foreign exchange loans to help “increase investment in the private sector, develop export markets and foster job growth”.