Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran is still having problems with transferring petrodollars.
Iranian deputy oil minister for international affairs Ali Majedi said although bans on petrochemical exports have been lifted, the country is still facing problems with receiving petrodollars since some foreign banks are disinclined to cooperate with Iran, the country's Tasnim news agency reported on May 7.
Conditions have generally improved, but the international sanctions have not been removed completely, he said.
Iran's petrochemical exports failed to show a significant increase in recent months despite the fact that Western countries suspended prohibition on the import, purchase or transport of the Islamic Republic's petrochemical products and related services since January.
Iran's petrochemical exports surpassed $10.723 billion during the last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 21), which indicates an increase by only 1.01 percent compared to the preceding year, the country's customs administration reported on April 7.
The total volume of exported petrochemicals in the last year stood at 14.5 million tons which is even 4 percent less than the previous year.
Iran has exported $868 million worth of petrochemicals in the 12th month of last Iranian calendar year, which indicates an increase by 3.6 percent compared to the $835 million worth of petrochemical exports of the preceding month.
However the figure is also lower than the average monthly exports during the last year which was $893.5 million.
While Western countries suspended certain sanctions on Iran's petrochemical products as the Geneva nuclear deal came into force on Jan. 20, it seems that some domestic problems prevented Iran's petrochemical exports to increase significantly.