Iran has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to immediately consider its request for an emergency loan it needs to battle the economic impacts of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati urged the IMF to stop discriminating against a member state because of “political lobbying” by the United States.
Speaking to a regional meeting organized by the IMF and the World Bank Group, Hemmati accused Washington of blocking Iran’s request for an emergency loan from the IMF.
The CBI governor reiterated the fact that Iran has been the hardest hit country by the coronavirus pandemic in MENAP, an IMF regional grouping that includes countries in the Middle East and North Africa plus Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Unfortunately, the executive manager of the US (in the IMF) was ordered in an administrative note dated October 15, 2020 to oppose Iran’s request for a loan.
“Thus, the desire of one country has deprived another country from accessing the funds required for battling the impacts of COVID-19,” he said.
Hemmati said Iran was the first MENAP country to ask for an emergency loan to tackle the corornavirus although it has yet to even receive a reply to its request although other members of the grouping have received a total of $16 billion under IMF emergency funding for the pandemic.
He said Iran needs the funding despite the fact that it managed to reach positive economic growth in three successive quarters of the calendar year to March.
“We expect the IMF to immediately respond to this legal request without discrimination and (without) being influenced by political lobbies or US pressures,” he said.