NDFI to Offer Loans Worth $2b to Exporters

EghtesadOnline: The National Development Fund of Iran is to allocate a total of $2 billion to help Iranian exporters, the fund’s director said.

News ID: ۷۷۹۸۵۰

23 October 2017

“Loans that are to be doled out by NDFI will be in the form of working capital and investment in projects,” Ahmad Doust-Hosseini was also quoted as saying by IBENA.

According to the official, facilities that are to be paid to exporters will be handed out at an interest rate of 11% while loans from the banking system are allocated at 16% interest rate.

The head of Iran’s sovereign-wealth fund said agent banks who volunteer to channel the fund’s resources to exporters must compound them with their own money while the interest rate will be equal to the average of the NDFI and banking system’s interest rates, Financial Tribune reported.

Doust-Hosseini outlined that the facilities will be paid out in one of two ways.

“The first option is finance on the credit of an Iranian seller, where they can receive the money in rial and in cash. The second option is finance on the credit of a foreign purchaser, where the applicant opens a letter of credit with an agent Iranian bank and the Iranian exporter will be reimbursed in cash by NDFI,” he said.

According to the fund’s director, in the second option, the foreign purchaser will have to commit to return the money in a maximum of two years.

“Reimbursement on loans in the form of working capital will generally begin immediately while their repayment will begin with a one-year delay because the maturity period of investment loans are seven to 10 years,” Doust-Hosseini said.