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Trade With EU Up 21% in 2014

Trade With EU Up 21% in 2014
Trade With EU Up 21% in 2014

Trade between Iran and member states of the European Union (EU) exceeded €7.56 billion (US$8.16 billion) in 2014, increasing by 21% compared to a year before, according to the European Commission's statistical office, Eurostat.

Iran and the EU countries recorded €6.23 billion ($6.72 billion) in trade turnover in 2013, IRNA reported.

Iran's export to the EU member states grew by 48% from about €780 million ($842 million) in 2013, to more than €1.16 billion ($1.25 billion) in 2014.

Also Iran imported goods and services worth over €6.40 billion ($6.91 billion) from the EU countries last year, which indicates an 18% increase compared with 2013's €5.44-billion ($5.87 billion) imports.

More than 6.87 million tons of commodities were exchanged between Iran and the EU countries in 2014, indicating a 70% rise compared with the previous year when the figure stood at 4.51 billion tons.

The net weight of trade between Iran and the EU countries increased by 179%, reaching from 530,000 tons in 2013 to more than 1.48 million tons in 2014.

Also, the net weight of Iran’s imports from these countries increased by 53%, from 3.52 million in 2013 to 5.39 million tons in 2014.

  Trade Balance

The balance of trade between Iran and the EU member states in 2014 was in favor of the EU with €5.24 billion ($5.65 billion) gap between exports and imports. The balance of trade was also in favor of the EU in 2013, with a gap of €4.66 billion ($5.03 billion).

Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Lithuania, Sweden, Austria and England were, in descending order, Iran’s major trade partners in 2014. The same countries were also Iran’s trade partners in 2013, with minor changes in their rankings.

Germany, Italy, France and Belgium were the biggest exporters respectively, while Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands were the main importers of Iranian goods and services.

The most significant changes in trade relations between Iran and the EU countries in 2014 compared with its previous year are as follows:

a) Total Trade Turnover

Trade turnover between Iran and Bulgaria increased by 213% compared with the previous year, making Bulgaria Iran’s 12th trade partner in 2014. Portugal was another country with which Iran experienced a surge in trade relations, with bilateral trade increasing by 83% compared with 2013.

However, trade turnover reduced between Iran and countries such as Finland and Greece which were ranked as Iran’s 14th and 16th trade partners in 2013 respectively.

b) Net Weight of Trade

Iran experienced maximum growth in the net weight of traded commodities with Denmark, increasing by 983%, followed by Bulgaria and the Netherlands with which Iran recorded 310% and 125% growth in terms of trade weight respectively.

Also, the weight of the traded commodities between Iran and Poland, Greece, Finland, France and Romania reduced by 87%, 81%, 69%, 67% and 59% respectively.

  Exports to Iran

Exports from Bulgaria experienced the maximum growth compared with other EU countries, increasing by 137% in 2014.

This is while Finland and Romania moved down in the ranking of major exporters to Iran, indicating 67% and 27% reduction in the level of exports respectively.

Financialtribune.com