TEHRAN –Iran’s non-oil exports has increased by 483 percent over the past 15 years, the acting head of the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Mohammad Reza Modoudi said on Tuesday.

In a statement published on TPO website on the occasion of the 15th establishment anniversary of TPO, Modoudi noted that the country’s annual non-oil exports is currently $44.3 billion, up $36.7 billion from $7.6 billion 15 years ago when TPO was established.

According to the official, non-oil exports to the neighboring countries has witnessed an even greater increase, with the figure jumping from $3.2 billion to $24 billion.

In early June, Modoudi announced that the value of Iran’s non-oil exports reached $8.4 billion in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-May 21), up 8.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the country’s imports during the two-month period stood at $6.7 billion, down by eight percent year on year.

The official also put the country’s exports of services at $1.6 billion, up by 17 percent from a year earlier.

According to the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), the country’s non-oil trade stood at $4.87 billion in the first Iranian calendar month of Farvardin (March 21-April 20).

Iran’s non-oil trade registered a $1.5-billion positive balance in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2018–March 2019).

EF/MG