NDF allocates $2b to support low-income Iranian families

TEHRAN,Jan.22(MNA) - The Iranian parliament and the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have agreed to allocate $2 billion from the National Development Fund to support low-income families. The money will be used to provide staple foods to poor families. The NDF has allocated $3 billion for loans to the agricultural and industrial sectors, Mohammad-Qassem Hosseini, who is one of the deputy managing directors of the NDF, said in September 2012. Hosseini added that the money would be converted into rials to finance national projects in the industrial, mining, water, and agricultural sectors. In May 2012, Industry, Mines and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said that ten percent of the NDF’s assets would be allocated to support national production. Ghazanfari told that three percent of the assets of specialized banks, which support the industrial and agricultural sectors, would be allocated to boost national production. On December 24, 2012, the Mehr News Agency quoted Ehsan Sharifi, who is another of the deputy managing directors of the NDF, as saying that about $43 billion had been deposited in the fund so far. Iran transfers 20 percent of its oil revenues to the NDF. President Ahmadinejad recently said that the NDF’s assets would hit $55 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013.