TEHRAN – According to Iran’s Customs Administration, the value of the country’s non-oil trade hit over $83 billion in the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 19, 2016.

In the past year, the Tasnim news agency reported, Iran exported $42.415 billion worth of goods while its imports reached $41.499 billion, showing a 16.11 percent decrease in the value of exports and a 22.53 percent decline in the value of imports when compared to its previous year.

The last year’s figures indicate that the volume of exports also hit 93.520 million tons of goods while the imports amounted to 35.70 million tons, pointing to 7.18 percent drop in exports and 18.47 percent decrease in imports, year-on-year.

Hydrocarbon-related products, liquid propane and bitumen were the main exported goods while China, Iraq, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan and India were the leading importers of Iranian goods, respectively.

On the other hand, corn, wheat, soy bean, rice and oil-cake of soybean were the major imported products during the last year when China, UAE, South Korea, Turkey and Switzerland stood among the top exporters of goods to Iran.

Iran had set a target of $77.5 billion in non-oil exports for the past year, according to Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the Iranian deputy industry, mining, and trade minister.      

In its preceding year, the country’s total non-oil exports hit $49.744 billion while non-oil imports reached $52.477 billion.

SJ/MA/