TEHRAN - Iran’s trade with the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) reached $7.255 billion in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22) to register a 60 percent increase year on year, the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) said.

According to Rouhollah Latifi, the volume of trade with the mentioned countries also increased by 67 percent in comparison to the previous year’s same six months, IRNA reported.

As reported, during the mentioned period Iran traded about 15.307 million tons of commodities with ECO member countries including Turkey, Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

The Islamic Republic exported more than 12.878 million tons of commodities worth over $4.555 billion to the said nations in the mentioned time span, registering 98 percent and 81 percent increase in terms of weight and value, respectively, Latifi said.

According to the official, Iran's exports to ECO member countries in the first half of this year were five times more than the imports in terms of weight and nearly 1.7 times more in terms of value, and the trade balance was $1.855 billion positive for Iran.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian goods in the said union were Turkey with about $2.308 billion of imports, Afghanistan with $999 million, Pakistan with $544 million, Uzbekistan with $217 million, and Azerbaijan with $212 million.

Meanwhile, the country imported 2.428 million tons of goods valued at over $2.7 billion from the ECO member countries, with Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan being the top sources of imported goods.

The imports from the said union during the mentioned six months fell nine percent in terms of weight compared to the previous year’s same period, however, in terms of value the figure increased by 34 percent year on year.

According to Latifi, more than 23.723 million tons of goods worth $11.71 billion were traded between Iran and the ECO member countries during the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), of which the share of exports was 18.419 million tons of goods worth $6.890 billion and the share of imports from these countries was 5.312 million tons worth $4.819 billion.

The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

EF/MA