Gov’t to Settle $11.6b of Bank Debts

The government will pay 450 trillion rials ($11.6 billion) of its debts to six state-owned banks by March 20, said the government’s spokesman, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, on Tuesday. The measure was proposed and approved as part of the annual budget plan for the next fiscal year (2017-18) and is set to “lift banks’ capital and increase their lending power”, IRNA quoted Nobakht as saying. He also noted that the government has allocated 390 trillion rials ($10.1 billion) for development of infrastructure projects, 370 trillion rials ($9.6 billion) of which will be paid by the end of the current fiscal year.