Iran posts $4.4bn of trade deficit for year to March
The Iranian customs administration (IRICA) has updated figures related to the country’s annual foreign trade as it posts a trade deficit of $4.4 billion for the calendar year to March 20.
IRICA figures published on Thursday showed that Iranian trade, excluding oil and gas, reached a total of $101.6 billion over the last calendar year, an increase of 38% compared to the year to March 2021.
Shipments rose 12.4% year on year in volume terms to 163.9 million metric tons (mt), showed the figures.
IRICA spokesman Rouhollah Latifi said that Iranian non-oil exports had increased 40% year on year in the year to March to reach a total value of $48.6 billion.
Overseas shipments had increased by 9% in volume terms to 122.7 million mt, Latifi told the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Imports into Iran reached over $53 billion in the year to late March, an increase of 36% compared to the previous year, said the IRICA official, adding that imports had risen by 22% in volume terms over the same period to stand at 41.1 million mt.
The figures come as economic experts have hailed the unprecedented surge in Iranian non-oil exports over the past calendar year, saying it is a sign of the country’s growing resilience to the impacts of the US sanctions.
The United States imposed an extensive regime of economic sanctions on Iran in 2018 seeking to stifle the country’s trade with the rest of the world.
Boosting bilateral trade with China has been a pillar of Iran’s efforts to neutralize the impacts of American sanctions as government figures show that trade with Beijing accounted for more than a fifth of Iran’s total foreign trade in the year to late March.
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