Over the past few years, the number of small to medium sized businesses has been increased in Iran significantly. However, the growth of this sector is not comparable to SMB’s growth rate in Western developed countries. Local economists in Iran believe that the government of Islamic Republic will be able to decrease the current unemployment rate, if it supports SMBs in Iran.
Iran’s central bank General Secretary, Mahmoud Bahmani, said on Wednesday that Iranian government is going to offer low-interest loans to qualified small and medium businesses in country. “President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has positive views on Iran-based SMBs. According to latest agreements, Central Bank of Iran in cooperation with local banks and financial institutions will offer low-interest loans to SMBs in near future.” Mahmoud Bahmani addressed a seminar with regard to SMBs’ conditions in Iran.
Currently, Iran is suffering from 30% unemployment rate. With the population of 80 million people, Iranian government has failed to create enough jobs for people in recent years. Consequently, the government’s performance on this subject has been censured by local economists and politicians.
“Base on the comments that we have received from experts, the future of Iran’s economy is depended on the performance of SMBs. Actually, these small and medium sized businesses have the necessary potential to address Iran’s current high unemployment rate.” Mahmoud Bahmani added.
Bahmani didn’t reveal more information with regard to promised low-interest loans for SMBs, but analysts say that Iranian government will certainly take a proper action on this subject in coming days and weeks.