Iran’s external debt increased to $9.3 billion by the end of the ninth Iranian calendar month to Dec. 20, the Central Bank of Iran reported. The debt is 3.5% or $317 million higher compared to the beginning of the current fiscal year last March.
Medium and long-term debt rose slightly to $7.36 billion, accounting for more than 78% of the total. Short-term debt was $1.98 billion on Dec.20, rising from $1.53 billion in March 2020.
Increase in external debt could be partly explained by Tehran’s efforts to raise funds for fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in the first months of the plague.
Iran received $50 million from the World Bank to help the health sector cope with the fatal disease, a deputy health minister said earlier.
In the meantime, the OPEC Fund for International Development also approved $500,000 in emergency grant to Iran to buy equipment needed to fight the plague.
Iran has solicited multilateral development banks for funds, in which the country is a member, namely the Islamic Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Development Bank.
CBI’s request for a $5-billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund was turned down by the crisis lender under US pressure.
As per CBI data, total foreign assets of Iranian banks were 45.9% higher YOY and up 30.3% in the nine months at 15,089 trillion rials ($62 billion).
CBI foreign assets accounted for 5,824.6 trillion rials ($23b) of the total assets by Dec. 20 17.8% higher compared to the same month of the previous year.