Iran’s Non-Oil Exports Decline By $4.5 Billion – Report

Radiofarda – Tehran Chamber of Commerce (TCC) in a report has said that Iran’s non-oil exports have declined eleven percent from March to November compared with same period last year.

TCC says its figures are based on information from Iranian customs and shows non-oil exports totaling $27 billion from March 21-November 20.

Iran’s customs office has stopped issuing its official reports since March, but last year’s figures show non-oil exports in the same period reached $31.5 billion; $4.5 billion more than the figure published by TCC.

Based on this comparison the decline is more than 14 percent, and not the 11 percent TCC has announced.

If the $4.5 billion decline in exports is true figure, it represents a significant decline, but in the light of U.S. sanctions, the decline is not as steep as in the oil sector, which has seen close to 90 percent reduction.

U.S. sanctions on Iran impact bot oil and non-oil exports, especially in terms of banking restrictions that do not allow Iranian entities to receive international bank transfers.

The TCC report says 73 percent of non-oil exports were purchased by China, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Afghanistan.

The report says Iran’s imports also delined by five percent to $28.4 billion.