TEHRAN - Trade transactions in national currencies between Iran and Russia have exceeded 50 percent of the two countries’ total bilateral trade this year, said Moscow's commercial representative in Tehran, Rustam Zhiganshin.

"If in 2018 payments in national currencies comprised 40 percent [of the two countries’ trade], in 2019 this quota has already exceeded 50 percent," Zhiganshin told sputnik.

The official stressed that the use of the Russian ruble and the Iranian rial is crucial in trade between the two countries.

Russia and Iran agreed last September to continue promoting payments in national currencies.

Zhiganshin also referred to the volume of trade between the two countries, saying that the bilateral trade between the two sides increased by 21 percent between January and October, standing at $1.67 billion.

Russia’s exports to Iran included electrical machinery, steel, wagons, wood, vegetable oil, corn, barley, lamb meat, and other goods, while its imports from the Islamic country were mostly cheeses, vegetables, and fruits.

The value of Iran’s exports to Russia rose 36 percent in 2018, Iran’s Commercial Attaché to Russia Farhad Parand said in February.

According to Parand, Iran exported $533 million of goods to Russia in 2018 while the figure was $392 million in 2017, Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) of Iran published on its website.

EF/MA