TEHRAN- Iran registered a monthly non-oil trade balance of $650 million in the seventh Iranian calendar month Mehr (September 23-October 22), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Ruhollah Latifi put the monthly non-oil trade at 19.554 million tons worth $9.886 billion.

The non-oil export was 15.187 million tons worth $5.268 billion, with an eight-percent rise in terms of value and a five-percent growth in terms of weight as compared to the same month of the past year, he said.

Importing 5.852 million tons of non-oil goods worth $1.643 billion, Iraq was Iran’s first export destination in the seventh month, followed by China, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan, he added.

The official put the monthly non-oil import at 4.367 million tons worth $4.618 billion, with a 48-percent rise in terms of value, and a 64-percent growth in terms of weight on a yearly basis.

United Arab Emirates was the first source of import to Iran, by exporting 949,000 tons of commodities worth $1.291 billion, followed by China, Turkey, Switzerland, and Germany, he stated.

Meanwhile, as previously announced by the IRICA head, the value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 43 percent during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

Mehdi Mir-Ashrafi said that Iran has traded over 98 million tons of non-oil products worth $54.8 billion with other countries in the mentioned period.

According to the IRICA head, the volume of trade in the mentioned period also grew by 16.5 percent in comparison to the figure for the previous fiscal year.

The official put the seven-month non-oil exports at 75.2 million tons valued at $27.1 billion, with a 47-percent rise in value and 15-percent growth in weight.

Mir-Ashrafi mentioned natural gas, methanol, polyethylene, semi-finished iron products, liquid propane, iron ingots, iron rods, urea, copper, and bitumen as the main exported products in the said time span.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian non-oil goods were China with about 16.9 million tons worth $7.7 billion, Iraq with 19.7 million tons worth $5.5 billion, Turkey with 11 million tons worth $7.4 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 6.6 million tons worth $2.6 billion, and Afghanistan with 2.8 million tons worth $1.1 billion.

The official further announced that Iran has imported 23.5 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $27.7 billion in the first seven months of the present year, with a 38-percent growth in value and a 21-percent rise in weight year on year.

Mir-Ashrafi named basic goods, machinery, livestock feed inputs, and raw materials for production units as the main imported commodities.

The United Arab Emirates with 6.9 million tons of goods worth $8.6 billion was the top exporter to Iran in the said period, followed by China with 1.9 million tons of goods worth $6.1 billion, Turkey with 2.5 million tons worth $2.9 billion, and Germany with 512,000 tons worth $1 billion, the official stated.

According to the IRICA head, out of the total non-oil goods imported into the country in the first seven months of this year, 16.6 million tons worth $11 billion were basic goods.

Mir-Ashrafi has announced that the value of Iran’s non-oil trade stood at $73 billion in the past Iranian calendar year.

He has put the weight of non-oil trade at 146.4 million tons, and said that the figure shows a 25-million-ton annual decline, which is the result of sanctions and coronavirus pandemic.

Iran’s non-oil export was 112 million tons valued at $34.5 billion, and that of import was 34.4 million tons worth $38.5 billion in the past year, the official added.

Among the country’s non-oil export destinations, China was the first, with importing $8.9 billion worth of products, Iraq was the second with importing $7.3 billion, the United Arab Emirates the third with importing $4.6 billion, Turkey the fourth with importing $2.5 billion, and Afghanistan the fifth with importing $2.2 billion, Mir-Ashrafi announced, and named gasoline, natural gas, polyethylene, propane, and pistachio as Iran’s major exported products during the past year.

He further named Iran’s top sources of non-oil imports in the said time, as China with exporting $9.7 billion worth of products to the Islamic Republic, the UAE with $9.6 billion, Turkey with $4.3 billion, India with $2.1 billion, and Germany with $1.8 billion, respectively, and mentioned corn, cellphone, rice, oil meal and oil seeds, wheat, and raw oil as the major imported items.

MA/MA