According to the latest data published by the Central Bank of Iran, the services sector grabbed the lion’s share of the bank loans both in terms of number and volume.
More than 2.8 million applicants in the sector received loans worth more than 1.2 quadrillion rials ($30.58 billion) during the period, accounting for 39.98% of all the offered credits.
The industries and mining sector with loans amounting to 954.2 trillion rials ($23.2 billion) and the business sector with 439.2 trillion rials ($10.7 billion) were the next major recipients of the credits accounting for 30.42% and 14% of the total loans, respectively, according to Financial Tribune.
After the services sector, the agriculture and housing sectors with 848,724 and 532,168 loan applicants received the largest number of allocated credits.
The housing sector, which has not yet fully recovered from its long-lasting recession, only bagged 238.7 trillion rials ($5.82 billion) or 7.6% of the total credits, which is considerably low, considering the size and value of the key sector.
As the report indicates, the share of working capital loans for all economic sectors in the period stood at 1.96 quadrillion rials ($48.02 billion), which account for 62.8% of all loans during the period.
Working Capital Needs
The share of working capital loans to stimulate industries and mines was 799.1 trillion rials ($19.49 billion), which equals 40.6% of all the credits extended to meet the working capital needs of businesses.
Industries and mines received 83.7% of their credits as working capital while they garnered a significant share of all loans offered by the banking system to business sectors.
The services sector was the runner-up, grabbing 634.5 trillion rials ($15.47 billion), or 32.7% of the entire working capital loans. More than half of its credit was allocated to meet working capital needs.
A study of the report reveals that the average value of each loan that went to the industrial and mining sector was considerably higher than that extended to other sectors, standing at 6.2 billion rials ($151,658).
The figure for trade loans, which had the second highest average value, was about 861.7 million rials ($21,017) while loans allocated to the agriculture sector held the lowest average value at 291.5 million rials ($7,109) during the first three months of the current Iranian year.