An Iranian state bank will soon issue bonds worth 200 million euros ($269.7 million), the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, the latest move by the Islamic state to raise funds as it faces the threat of new UN sanctions.
Iran's Central Bank has authorised the Export Development Bank of Iran to issue bonds with maturities of one, two and three years in order to boost foreign exchange reserves, IRNA said.
In a separate offering, Iran's state energy sector last month started selling bonds worth up to 1 billion euros to help finance key natural gas projects, the Oil Ministry website SHANA reported at the time. Iran had said it planned to offer those bonds, designed to fund development of its South Pars gas field in the Gulf, in four instalments of 250 million euros each over a 120-day period at Iranian banks abroad.
The bond issues represent a rare bid by the Islamic Republic, which is under UN and US sanctions over its disputed nuclear work, to raise capital in this way.
Analysts say Iran needs funds to help modernise and expand its oil and gas sector, but particularly Western companies are increasingly wary of investing in the major oil producer due to the nuclear dispute.
Iran has struggled for years to find the cash and the technology to develop its energy sector as sanctions and political pressure have kept foreign firms away. It has increasingly shifted to Asian countries.
The United States and its European allies have been trying to pressure Iran to suspend its disputed nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Tehran says its atomic work is for peaceful purposes and will not be halted.
The United States, which imposes sanctions on most trade with Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution, is pushing for a fourth round of UN penalties on Iran because of its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work.
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