TEHRAN- Passenger car manufacturing in Iran rose 16.8 percent in the second Iranian calendar month of Ordibehesht (April 21-May 21), compared to the same month last year. 

  
Iranian carmaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) manufactured 52,958 passenger cars in the second month of current Iranian year, showing 23.5 percent rise from 42,884 in the second month of the previous year, the ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Saipa Company, the other Iranian major carmaker, manufactured 33,592 passenger cars in Ordibehesht of this year, with 1.6 percent growth from 33,062 in the same month of the last year.

Car production in Iran rose over 53 percent in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, compared to its preceding year.  

Iranian carmakers manufactured more than 1.13 million vehicles in the last calendar year.  

The automobile industry, the biggest non-oil sector of the Iranian economy, constituting around 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), boomed over the decade ending in 2011 due to government support and the dearth of international competitors in the domestic market.  

Iran produced 1.6 million vehicles in 2011; the year new sanctions were introduced by the Europeans.  

MA/