Iran Private Sector Welcomes Debt Swap Plan

The government’s proposal for a trilateral swap deal involving the state, private contractors and banks has been met positively by the private sector whose chief  executive said it will help ease businesses’ debt burden. “I hereby welcome this constructive proposal that will help alleviate many of the challenges facing businesses,” Gholamhossein Shafei, the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, wrote in a letter to Minister of Economic and Finance Affairs Masoud Karbasian. The proposal, which is expected to be implemented in the 2017-18 budget, was originally put forth by Karbasian in a letter to the head of Planning and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, and called for swapping the outstanding debt of the administration to private contractors and private firms’ debts to banks with the banks’ debt to the government.