Tehran, Iran, March 13
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran was responsible only for only 0.14 percent of Russia’s imports in 2015, although they are neighboring countries and share the Caspian Sea as a major trade route. This is while China, German, the US, Belarus, and Italy played big role in Russian market, Mehr news agency reported March 13.
Russia’s per capita import in 2015 was $1,265. The country’s simple average tariff is 7.8 percent, while the weighted average tariff is 8.1 percent, much lower than tariffs in Iran. The fact has not contributed to growth of Iranian exports to Russia despite expectations.
Russia’s imports started to soar in 2016. The International Monetary Fund has estimated the trend will continue until 2018. The country’s imports are expected to grow by 5.8 percent in 2017.
Iran’s exports to Russia in 2015 were not very diverse. Of the 212 tariff lines for Iranian goods exported to Russia, 26 lines with eight-digit prices constituted 80 percent of the value of Iran’s export to Russia.
Some 54 percent of Iran’s exported goods to Russia were intermediate goods, while the remaining 46 percent were consumer goods.
Russia’s economic growth is expected to hit 1.1 and 1.2 percent in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The World Bank is predicting 1.5 percent growth in Russia’s gross domestic product in 2017 and sees a gain of 1.7 percent in 2018 and 1.8 percent the following year, helped by increases in commodity prices.
...