TEHRAN- According to the latest released data, 28 million tons of commodities worth more than 650 trillion rials (more than $16.7 billion) were traded in Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) in a ten-month-period beginning from the start of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2016- January 19, 2017), showing 87 percent rise in terms of value compared to the same time span in the previous year.

According to IRNA, the announced figure shows a 42-percent increase in terms of volume, compared to that of the previous year.

IME’s average trade volume has been worth five to seven percent of Iran’s gross domestic product in the past few years, Hamed Soltani-Nejad, IME’s chief executive, was quoted as saying by SENA news agency in early June, 2016. Soltani-Nejad added that IME is the second largest mercantile exchange in the region.

As reported, IME plans to go beyond the Iranian market by expanding its international collaboration with the suppliers, traders and other mercantile exchanges across the globe.

The Iranian body wants to boost its cooperation with the other exchanges and absorb the suppliers to exclude intermediaries because of years of isolation from the world trading system under the international financial embargo.

HJ/MA