Iran, Turkey Exports Falls by 40%
IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK
TEHRAN – Iran and Turkey’s total trade volume tumbled 40 percent in 2019 comparing to their trade in 2018 and the figure is in favor of Turkey.
According to the latest report released by Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce, the trade between two neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey faced a twist in 2019 and their total trade volume decreased by 40 percent in 2019 comparing to 2018. The report further shows that the drop is because of decrease in Iran’s exports to Turkey, reiterating that Turkey’s exports to Iran stood at around $31.2b in 2019 while it shows only 3.2 percent drop comparing to 2018.
The report also shows that Iran and Turkey’s trade in 2019 stood at around $5.2b, reiterating that Iran’s exports to Turkey were around $3.3b
Comparing the released data, one can witness 40 percent drop in Iran’s exports to Turkey and the main reason for the drop is 52.8 percent decrease in Iran’s exports to Turkey.
According to the chamber’s report, the trend of imports and exports between Iran and Turkey was almost the same and remained stable till the third quarter of 2018 but the trend started downtrend from the fourth quarter of 2018.
In the first quarter of 2019, Iran’s exports to Turkey improved because of exporting natural gas but the figure started nosediving from the second quarter of 2019 and the fall was intensified in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter and with small fall, the figure reached $268m.
Unlike the downtrend in Iran’s exports to Turkey, the trend of Turkey’s exports to Iran continued in 2019 almost with the same pace as of 2018.
Iran and Turkey’s trade balance which was almost positive in favor of Iran due to considerable volume of oil exports started downtrend from the second quarter in 2019 due to the U.S. sanctions and in the second and third quarters the trade balance became negative.
The report claims that Iran’s non-oil exports to Turkey in 2019 were not satisfactory as the total volume of Iran’s non-oil exports to Turkey in 2019 stood at around $1.15b and the figure shows $6.5 percent fall comparing to the same period in 2018.
Data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration on Iran’s non-oil trade show liquefied natural gas, non-alloy zinc, aluminum, urea and bitumen were Iran’s main commodities exported to Turkey, while Turkey mainly exported cooking bananas, tobacco and fiber during the last Iranian year (March 2018-19).
The report enumerated some reasons for the fall in Iran’s exports to Turkey and it blamed lack of trade diplomacy and integrated regulations as the major reasons for the fall in trade with Turkey.
