Iran sees 50-pct increase in exports to Europe

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Iran's export to the European countries has increased around 50 percent.

The Iranian Customs Administration said in its latest monthly report that the country's exports to Europe registered a 49.7 percent increase in terms of value year on year and stood at $643 million during the first five months of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21-Aug. 22).

The Islamic Republic exported 777,000 tons of goods to the European countries in the 5-month period, which indicates an increase of 8.1 percent in comparison with the same period of preceding year.

In the reported period European markets shared 4.81 percent of Tehran’s total non-oil exports’ value.

Meanwhile, the European countries exported over 3.95 million tons of goods, worth $3.6 billion to Iran during the 5-month period from March 21 to August 22.

The Islamic Republic's imports from the Europe registered a fall by 12.7 percent in terms of value and 14.9 percent decrease in terms of volume respectively compared to the same period of preceding year. Iran’s imports from Europe accounted for 21.3 percent of the country’s total imports’ value.

Switzerland was the Islamic Republic’s main European trade partner during the period. The country exported over $852 million worth of goods to Iran, indicating a rise by 24.36 percent year on year.

Switzerland stood at sixth place among the countries exported goods to Iran.

Germany was the next top European goods exporter to Iran with $713 million worth of exports, followed by Italy ($359.2 million worth of goods), Netherlands ($254.6 million), France ($242.6 million) and Russia ($228 million).

Tehran’s non-oil exports (including condensates) stood at $16.939 billion during first five months of current Iranian fiscal year, while imports accounted for $16.911 billion.

It is believed that the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, the elimination of restrictions on Tehran will create good opportunities for the country's export operations.

Iran and the P5+1, which includes China, France, Russia, the UK, the U.S., plus Germany, reached on April 2 a political agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. The EU and the U.S. said they are ready to lift sanctions against Iran in the case of compliance with the conditions put forward.