TEHRAN- Car manufacturing in Iran rose 41 percent in the first month of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-April 20), compared to the same month last year, the ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Iranian carmakers manufactured 58,023 vehicles in the first month of this year; while the figure was 41,150 in the first month of the previous 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