Iran’s Biggest Threat Has Nothing to Do With Trump - Bloomberg

Iran’s Biggest Threat Has Nothing to Do With Trump - Bloomberg:

"Ahmad, who runs an advertising agency in a busy commercial district of Tehran, has given up trying to get a business loan from any of the dozens of lenders just a short walk from his office.

Finding a bank in Iran is easy. The challenge is finding one that will lend at affordable rates, or even lend at all. The central bank’s rates for businesses are set as high as 18 percent. Ahmad, who employs about 20 people, says his bank told him that his company’s healthy accounts put him in a good position for a loan. But when he applied, he was refused and given excuses, says Ahmad, who asked not to be to be identified by his full name because of concerns in Iran about speaking to foreign media.

Money is harder to come by in a struggling economy, and Ahmad’s experience reflects the financial problems in a country that three years ago looked to be on the cusp of prosperity after a rapprochement with the U.S. and Europe. Now it’s flirting with its own version of the credit crunch that crippled Western banks a decade ago. With the deal on its nuclear program failing to deliver promised gains, experts in Tehran say a banking crisis poses a bigger economic threat to the country than any decision by Donald Trump to rip up the agreement.

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