NDFI Reserves Hit $91b

EghtesadOnline: The National Development Fund of Iran has $91 billion in reserves, Mohammad Hosseini, who also represents the parliament on the NDFI governing board, said.

News ID: ۷۴۲۲۳۹

19 June 2017

The NDFI is Iran’s sovereign wealth fund. According to Hosseini, oil and agriculture sectors are major beneficiaries of the fund, which serves to finance infrastructure projects using oil revenue deposits, ISNA reported. As per the budget bill for the current Iranian year (March 2017-18), the government is tasked with depositing 30% of revenues earned from oil and gas exports to NDFI, up from 20% as per the budget law of the fiscal 2016-17 year. The parliament has also allowed the government to withdraw $2.3 billion from NDFI this year, more than 50% of which are to go to the defense sector. The approved withdrawals are far from what the government needs to cover the deficit that has forced it to drastically cut spending in both state bodies and infrastructure projects suffering from underinvestment and underdevelopment in the past few years, Financial Tribune reported.