Iran President Solicits €2b From Sovereign Wealth Fund

EghtesadOnline: A lawmaker said Monday that President Hassan Rouhani has issued a decree to withdraw €2 billion from the National Development Fund of Iran after receiving permission from the Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

News ID: ۷۴۷۰۱۱

09 April 2019

The funds are to be allocated to alleviate the plight of flood-hit residents and help rebuild destroyed infrastructure.

Fatemeh Zolghadr, a Tehran MP, said assessment reports estimate the flood damages to be as high as 300 trillion rials ($2.2 billion). “The current year’s budget cannot compensate the losses incurred by the destructive flooding, Financial Tribune reported.

Apart from withdrawal from the sovereign wealth fund, other options to help the flood victims rebuild their lives include issuing participatory bonds and opening credit lines by the CBI for agent banks” ICANA, the parliamentary news website, quoted her as saying.

She emphasized that those in charge should consider priorities when allocating relief aid and called on executive officials to directly deliver funds to the flood-stricken families after identifying the victims and estimating damages.

Ahsan Alavi, another MP, said Sunday that a group of parliamentarians have asked Rouhani and Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani to tap into the NDFI resources. “As available resources do not suffice, we have to resort to the NDFI to help compensate the colossal damages” Fars News Agency quoted him saying.

The governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said Sunday given the scale and scope of the damages, the current budget resources are simply too thin and cannot meet all the needs of flood-hit regions. “As such, tapping into the NDFI is inevitable.”

He assured the flood victims that the banking system in its entirety will mobilize to assist the flood-stricken areas in facilitating grants, easy loans and long-term financial resources.

Unprecedented heavy rains and flood swept across the country in the past three weeks. The waters killed 70 people, displaced thousands and incurred heavy losses on farmlands, roads and other infrastructure.