Iran Sees 13.5% Growth in Non-Oil Exports Last Year

Export volume of non-oil commodities in the last Iranian calendar year [ended March 19] stood at 133.9 million tons, showing a 13.5% surge as compared to the previous year, head of Iran’s Mine House Mohammad Reza Bahraman said on Wednesday.

Given the harsh US sanctions against Iran and the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade is expected to facilitate the process of export activities, Bahraman added.

He also called on responsible officials at the Industry to make every effort to remove the obstacles facing Iran’s exports sector.

In relevant remarks on May 19, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnasser Hemmati said that non-oil exports will have a surge as the country is facing a decrease in the trend of coronavirus outbreak and trade activities are resumed.

“The government's plans for development of non-oil exports and the ways of securing foreign exchange for Iran’s imports in 2020 were reviewed and good decisions were made,” Hemmati added on his Instagram page late on Tuesday referring to the meeting of the Government's Economic Coordination Headquarters with the president in attendance.

"I explained the CBI's different methods for returning exporters' currency to the economic cycle," he said.

A good opportunity has emerged to promote national production, prevent unnecessary imports and increase non-oil exports, he noted.

In relevant remarks on May 8, Iranian Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand said that the country has kept trading in various fields despite persistence of the US most oppressive sanctions for the past two years.

“Iran’s commercial sector didn’t undergo much change in the past Iranian years 1397 and 1398 [March 21, 2018- March 19, 2020],” Farhad Dejpasand said.

He added that the huge capacity of the country’s economy was proved by nearly $44 billion of import and $41 billion of non-oil export during the mentioned period.

source: Fars News