Statistics from the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) Research Center show that since the establishment of the National Development Fund in 2011 until March 2024, about 82% of its $161 billion revenue has been spent, and 88% of the loans disbursed were allocated to the government and public institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Of the $132 billion in loans disbursed by the fund over 13 years, only $8 billion has been repaid. An additional $18 billion, despite reaching maturity, remains unpaid and has turned into overdue loans.
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The parliamentary research report shows that by March 2024, the fund’s foreign currency reserves stood at only $26.5 billion. After subtracting $6.5 billion in outstanding foreign exchange obligations, only $20 billion remains in manageable assets for Iran’s National Development Fund.
The fund has yet to release its report for the previous fiscal year, which ended on March 20, 2025. However, reviews show that last year the government borrowed at least $10 billion from the fund — either directly (via approval from regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei) or by seizing part of the fund’s share of oil export revenues. According to the current year’s budget law, the government is also expected to borrow at least $9.4 billion from the projected $16 billion in oil revenue allocated to the fund.
This financial institution was established 14 years ago to save a portion of the country’s oil revenues and provide loans to the private sector, replacing the former “Foreign Exchange Reserve Account.” In practice, however, the government and military forces have seized control of most of the fund’s financial resources. Only $14 billion — less than 10% of the total — has been allocated to the private sector, and given the widespread corruption and cronyism, it is unlikely that even this amount was distributed to genuine private enterprises.
If no further unexpected withdrawals are made by the government by the end of the current year, total government debt to the fund will exceed $125 billion.
The key issue is that the government lacks the financial resources to repay its debts. For the current year, the Iranian regime has projected daily oil exports of 1.8 million barrels, with one-third of that allocated directly to the military. If the National Development Fund is also turned into a direct oil exporter, the government would effectively be sidelined in Iran’s oil export sector.
While Iran’s National Development Fund now holds less than $20 billion in manageable assets, data from the Global SWF (Sovereign Wealth Fund) Institute shows that the total reserves of oil-related sovereign wealth funds in the Persian Gulf countries and Azerbaijan have surpassed $3.6 trillion.
In addition to the $3.6 trillion in oil-related funds, these neighboring countries also hold an equivalent amount in other sovereign wealth funds.
For example, the United Arab Emirates operates eight sovereign wealth funds worth a combined $2.3 trillion. Only one of them, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), is oil-related, and it alone manages over $1.1 trillion in assets.
Beyond the $6.7 trillion in oil-related or independent sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds in Iran’s oil-rich neighboring countries also hold $650 billion in assets. In contrast, Iran’s public pension funds have effectively gone bankrupt for years and are reliant on government funding.
Additionally, the central banks of Arab Persian Gulf countries hold over $850 billion in foreign currency reserves. By comparison, according to the Global SWF Institute, the Central Bank of Iran holds only $25 billion in reserves, most of which has been loaned to the government or domestic banks.
The National Development Fund’s share of the region’s sovereign wealth fund value doesn’t even reach half a percent, even though Iran holds the largest gas reserves in the region and the second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Iran’s oil production ranks third in the region after Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and it produces more natural gas than any other country in the region.
Decades of misguided policymaking, widespread corruption, and plunder-based management have worked hand-in-hand with international sanctions to bankrupt Iran’s financial institutions one after another.
