Trade with foreign countries stood at $45.218 billion in the first seven months of the current Iranian year (started March 21). Iran exported 49.325 million tons of commodities worth $21.162 billion during the said period, which shows a 7.5-percent rise in terms of weight and a 15-percent decline in terms of value, ISNA reported. Iron ore worth $747 million, urea worth $688 million and methanol worth $671 million were the major products exported during the period. Some $3.926 billion worth of gas condensates, $5.592 of petrochemical products and $11.644 billion of other items constituted the exported non-oil goods. The main export destinations were China, Iraq, UAE, India and Afghanistan with a value of $3.625 billion, $3.415 billion, $2.058 billion, $1.513 billion and $1.458 billion respectively.
About 16 million tons of commodities worth $24.056 billion were imported during the said period, which shows a decline of 32.5 percent and 24.8 percent in terms of weight and value respectively. The five major imported goods were rice ($1.464 billion), oilcake ($971 million), wheat ($ 655 million), corn ($581 million) and vehicles with a 1000-1500 cc cylinder ($521 million). During the period, Iran imported $4.9 billion worth of goods from UAE, which constitutes 20.37 percent of the whole imports, while China, India, South Korea and Turkey were next in line with $4.623 billion, $2.269 billion, $2.046 billion and $2.028 respectively.