Iran’s exports to Italy reached $79.2 million in October 2014 from $10.24 million in October 2013, recording an eightfold increase compared with the same period last year, TNA reported Saturday citing data released by Eurostat.
The value of total trade between Iran and Italy increased to $219 million in October 2014 from $111.46 million in October 2013, the report added.
Bilateral trade between the two countries began to rise after President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatic politician, took office in June 2013, promising to open up Iran’s economy to the world after 8 years of isolation and stagnation. Since then, both countries’ officials have held numerous high profile meetings in an attempt to figure out new avenues of trade.
In July 2014, the director general for Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Promotion Department Andrea Meloni, who was heading a business delegation, met with Iranian Presidential Chief of Staff Mohammad Nahavandian in Tehran. The delegation was comprised of managers from Italian state-run and private enterprises.
According to the Italy-Iran Chamber of Commerce, annual trade between the two countries has grown notably since 2002, reaching its peak of $9.7 billion in 2011.
However, after the European Union’s decision to widen commercial sanctions against Iran, bilateral trade in the first eleven months of 2012 was halved to $4.8 billion. Italy remains Iran’s top European trade partner.
