TEHRAN - Iran’s trade with the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) exceeded $9.233 billion in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22) to register a 48.5 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 43 percent in comparison to the previous year’s same seven months, IRNA reported.

As reported, during the mentioned period Iran traded over 20,327,839 tons of commodities with ECO member countries including Turkey, Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Iran exported 17,440,617 tons of commodities worth over $6,030,544 billion to the said nations in the mentioned period.

He said major export destinations of the Iranian goods in the said union were Turkey with about $3.397 billion of imports, Afghanistan with $1.125 billion, Pakistan with $655.154 million, and Azerbaijan with $272.958 million.

As reported, the Islamic Republic’s export to ECO members increased by 58 percent and 60 percent compared to the figures for the previous year in terms of weight and value, respectively.

Meanwhile, the country imported 2,887,222 tons of goods valued at over $3.302 billion from the ECO member countries, with Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan being the top sources of imported goods.

The value of Iranian imports from the ECO union also increased by 31 percent compared to the previous year’s same time span, the official said.

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 value of Iran’s non-oil trade rose 43 percent during the first seven months of the current as compared to the same period of time in the past year, Latifi had previously announced.

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.

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