Islamic Development Bank continues delivering loans to Iran

Dalga Khatinoglu, Trend Agency's Iran News Service Head The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) reported on Sep.5 that it issued $190 million worth loans for a sanitation improvement project in Iran, while the Iranian government confirmed in April that $260 million worth of loans was received from the IDB. The Iranian government says it agreed to get a $500 million loan from the IDB for the current year. The loan is vital for developing humanitarian projects, while Iran is the third shareholder of bank among 56 members. According to the annual IDB report, at the end of November 2012, cumulative IDB Group financing in Iran amounted to $5.9 billion (including $3.23 billion project financing operations) for 80 operations. The Bank's ordinary operations in agriculture and water, sanitation and urban services accounted for about 51 percent of the total project portfolio in Iran while the support to energy, industry and mining accounted for 38 percent. Over the years, IDB approvals for project financing in Iran have shown a sharp upward trend. The amount approved for project financing during the 2001-2011 period has increased by almost nine fold compared to 1991-2000 levels. Iran holds 8.28 percent of total shares of IDB worth about 1.491 billion Islamic Dinar. Each Islamic Dinar equals to about $1.45. The IDB has allocated about $87.225 billion load to the member countries' project yet. Iran has ranked forth after Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey in term of most attracted loans from IDB until November 2012. Allocating loans by Islamic Development Bank to Iran continues, while the World Bank announced in June that Iran owed the bank $697 million on June 30, of which $79 million was overdue. The World Bank said Iran is more than six months overdue on loan repayments, making it only the second nation delinquent on development finance owed to the Washington-based institution. Iran said that delays happened because it faces obstacles due to financial sanctions imposed by West over the country. There has not been published any information about the solution of dispute between Iran and World Bank, yet.