Around $52.5 million worth of goods were imported during the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), SHATA quoted deputy minister of industry, mine and trade, Mojtaba Khosrowtaj, as saying noting that the import of consumer goods fell by 7% compared to the preceding year.
“The import of capital and intermediary goods rose by 28% and 4% respectively during the same period,” he added, attributing the rise in the import of capital goods mainly to the increased import of machinery used in the development of new projects due to be launched throughout the current year.
He further referred to apparel imports, saying close to $6 billion worth of clothes was officially imported into the country, while $2 billion was smuggled during the past year.
Khosrowtaj added that the country has to import more than 90% of its need for soybean meal, saying the domestic consumption of corn is around 6 million tons a year, of which 2.4 million tons is produced domestically and the rest has to be imported from various countries.
The deputy minister also noted that the annual consumption of rice amounts to 2.3 million tons, of which 1.8 million is produced domestically and the rest is imported.
"Car imports rose by 30% during the past year compared with the preceding year," he added.
Earlier, Chairman of the export promotion department of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Asadollah Asgaroladi anticipated that imports and exports could exceed $70 billion and $60 billion respectively during the current Iranian year following a comprehensive nuclear agreement and an eventual lifting of economic sanctions (imposed by the West over Iran’s nuclear energy program).
Non-oil exports worth $49.7 billion were recorded during the past Iranian year.
