TEHRAN- The value of Iran’s non-oil trade with its neighboring countries increased 23 percent in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.

Mohammad Rezvanifar put Iran’s non-oil trade with its neighbors at 64.5 million tons worth $41.1 billion in the seven-month period, IRIB reported.

He said trade with the neighbors also increased by 16 percent in terms of weight.

The official named United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and Russia as the top five trade partners of the country among neighbors in the mentioned seven months.

In the seven months of this year, Iran's trade with the UAE was $16.2 billion, trade with Turkey was $9.9 billion, exchanges with Iraq stood at $7.6 billion, with Pakistan the figure was $1.6 billion, and the Russian Federation traded $1.5 billion of goods with Iran.

According to Rezvanifar, Iran exported 51.1 million tons of non-oil goods worth $20.2 billion to the neighboring countries in the seven-month period of this year, while importing 13.4 million tons of goods valued at $20.9 billion.

Regarding Iran's main export destinations among the neighboring countries, he said: “Iraq, the UAE, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the five main export destinations of Iran among the neighboring countries.”

“United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Russia, Oman, and Pakistan were the five major sources of imports among the neighboring countries in the seven months of this year,” the official added.

Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that the Iranian government has been pursuing in recent years.

Iran shares land or water borders with 15 countries namely the UAE, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Saudi Arabia.

EF/MA