Hamid Kalantari added that 74 trillion rials ($1.76 billion) were paid in loans to cooperatives last year to support their activities, IRNA reported.
The parliament has tasked the government with increasing the share of cooperatives in gross domestic product to 25% by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (March 2022). This share was also targeted by the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2011-16), but was never realized.
According to the head of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, Bahman Abdollahi, Iranian cooperatives currently account for no more than 7% of Iran’s GDP, Financial Tribune reported.