Iran’s exports reach $23.2bn in six months

Iran’s exports have earned USD 23.2 billion for the country in the six months ending September 22, 2014, an Iranian official says.

Valiollah Afkhami-Rad, the deputy minister of industry, mine and trade, said late Saturday that the figure shows a 19-percent increase compared with the same period last year.

Afkhami-Rad, who is the head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, said earlier this month that the country’s foreign trade has witnessed a 22-percent growth during the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-September 22).

“The volume of the country’s foreign trade grew 22 percent to over USD 53 billion during the first six months of the current year,” he said.

He expressed optimism that Iran’s foreign trade would reach USD 110 billion by March 2015.

Afkhami-Rad also pointed to Tehran’s new plan to provide more support for the Iranian exporters of technical and engineering services as well as high value-added and high-tech products.

The country’s major export items comprised liquefied propane, methanol and bitumen with the main export destinations, in descending order, being China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and Turkey.