TEHRAN– Iran exported over $16.95 billion worth of non-oil goods (including gas condensates) in the first five months of the current calendar year (ended August 22), the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration’s Head, Abbas Me’marnejad, said here on Sunday. 

The amount shows a 40.19 percent increase in comparison to the figure for corresponding period in previous year, the Mehr news agency reported.

The exported goods weighed around 30.855 million tons which is 11.94 percent more than previous year’s figure.

Iran also imported some 14.43 million tons of commodities (worth $13.7 billion) in the mentioned time span, marking 29.09 percent and 3.02 percent decrease in terms of weight and value, respectively.

Previously, the head of the Trade Promotion Organization said that the non-oil exports of the county is expected to hit $43 billion in the current Iranian calendar year (starting March 21), and the figure is also expected to top $50.5 billion in the year after.

Hamid Safdel went on to say that the government will support exporters in order to help them increase the amount of non-oil exports.

Under the government's plans, exporters will have representatives in the Supreme Council for Non-oil Exports to help remove the obstacles in the way and increase the volume of non-oil exports.

Iran's non-oil exports have increased considerably in recent years.