TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s customs office (IRICA) says that exports from the country rose by 61% in value terms in the first half of the calendar year that started in late March as its foreign trade hit $45b.
IRICA chief Mehdi Mir Ashrafi said that Iran’s exports had reached a total value of 21.8 billion in the six months to September 22. He said acceleration in the release of the imported goods has made the trade balance in favor of imports.
Touching upon Iran’s foreign trade in the first half of the year, he said Iran’s foreign trade has kept its growth in exports and its foreign trade has been $45b in the first half which shows 47 percent year on year and in this period, the country has exchanged 79.1m tons of goods with other countries.
Mir Ashrafi said that exports had also increased by 30% in volume terms over the same period to top 60 million metric tons.
China was the top customer of the Iranian goods and products in the March-September period with $6.5 billion worth of purchases, followed by Iraq at $3.8 billion and Turkey at $2.3 billion, he said.
Shipments to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan had amounted to $2.2 billion and $1 billion, respectively, showed IRICA figures.
Main goods and products exported from Iran between March and September included liquefied natural gas (LNG), methanol, polyethylene, steel and iron products, petrochemicals and gasoline, the customs data showed.
However, Mir Ashrafi said that Iran had a negative balance of trade in the first half of the current calendar year as imports into the country rose to $23.1 billion, up 37% against the similar period last year.
The UAE, the main re-exporting hub in the Persian Gulf, topped the list of exporters into Iran in March-September with $7.3 billion worth shipments. It was followed by China at $5 billion and Turkey at $2.4 billion.
Iran has maintained a stable flow of trade with other countries despite harsh sanctions imposed by the United States since 2018.
IRICA figures showed that Iran’s total value of trade recorded between late March and late September had increased by 47% compared to the similar period in 2020.
