Head of IRICA Mohammad Rezvanifar on Sunday showed that Iran’s trade with other countries, including its exports of crude oil and technical and engineering services, had reached a total of $99.7 billion in the seven calendar months to October 21.

Rezvanifar said that Iran’s exports in April-October had amounted to $60.2 billion, including $27 billion in crude oil and mazut exports and some $0.7 billion in technical and engineering services exports, according to Press TV. 

Imports into Iran reached a total of $39.5 billion over the seven months to late October, including $3.4 billion worth of standard gold bullion imports, he said.

Iran had a non-oil trade deficit of nearly $7 billion over the April-October period, showed IRICA figures which also indicated that the country’s non-oil exports had increased by 11.48% in volume terms compared to the same period last year to reach a total of 88.7 million metric tons.

Iran’s petrochemical exports, a main source of earning hard currency for the country, reached $15.2 billion in the seven months to late October, a year on year increase of 24%, the figures showed.

China was Iran’s largest trading partner and the largest buyer of Iranian export goods in April-October, said Rezvanifar, adding that the East Asian country had been responsible for $8.6 billion worth of purchases of Iranian goods and commodities over the period.

He said Iran’s exports to Iraq had reached $7.3 billion over the seven months to late October while shipments delivered to buyers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey had topped $4.2 and $3.3 billion, respectively.

Iran’s imports from the UAE, the largest re-exporting hub in the Persian Gulf, was at $12 billion over the seven-month period, said the IRICA chief, adding that Turkey was the third largest exporter to Iran after the UAE and China with some $6.6 billion worth of shipment delivered to the country over the period.

DID