TEHRAN - Iran has produced $1.0 billion more agricultural products over the past calendar year to late March than that produced a year earlier, according to Minister of Agriculture Mohammad-Ali Nikbakht.

The minister said on Wednesday that Iran’s agricultural sector registered negative growth for nearly four years while it posted a 0.5 percent growth late last year.

He expressed hope that Iranian agriculture would continue to grow this year. 

Iran’s overall inflation was reported at 2.8 percent last month whereas the inflation of food and essential goods stood at 1.8 percent, the minister said, noting that the inflation of the agriculture sector has been lower than the country’s overall inflation.

He added that Iran’s reserves of agricultural inputs and essential goods are much better this year than that of the preceding year.

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