Azerbaijan, Baku, April 12 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran's non-oil trade would pass $150 billion this Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2011), ISNA reported quoting Iranian Customs Director Abbas Memarnejad as saying.
"This amount includes non-oil export, import and transit of goods," Memarnejad said.
Iran exported $32.6 billion worth of non-oil commodities last Iranian year (March 21, 2010-March 20, 2011), Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini told Mehr News Agency.
According to Hosseini, Iran's import reached $64 billion during this period.
The volume of transit goods passing through Iran has soared by 33 percent, Hosseini added.
Iran has increased its non-oil exports to Asia by almost 20 percent, which now represents 83 percent of its sales, while Europe, whose purchases have fallen by almost a quarter, only accounted for 13 percent, according to Customs figures.
The upward trend also stands true for imports, Memarnejad said earlier.
Memarnejad said 61 percent of Iranian imports came from Asia, including the Middle East, while Europe was responsible for 34 percent and the American continent for only two percent.
Among those European countries whose exports to Iran declined the most were Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Austria, Memarnejad added.
According to Memarnejad, 85 percent of imports were industrial equipment, materials such as steel, and also gold, which Tehran has drastically imported in recent years to reduce its foreign reserves in Western banks.
Only 15 percent of imports were consumer goods, Memarnejad noted.
The increase in Iran's trade comes despite tightened United States and European Union sanctions imposed since the summer of 2010 against the Islamic republic, especially targeting its oil sector, due to its disputed nuclear programme.
But Iran has also increased its petrochemical production and exports of petroleum products, which accounted for $8.6 billion compared to $6.5 billion the previous year, showing an increase of over 30 percent, according to figures released by the oil ministry.
Traditional products, such as pistachios and carpets, currently constitute a small proportion of Iranian exports, with $556 million worth of carpets and a little more than a $1 billion of pistachios exported last year.
In addition to its non-oil exports, Iran sold some $70 billion of crude oil during the past Iranian year (ended March 20, 2011), according to media reports.
Iran exported $28.4 billion worth of non-oil products together with technical and engineering services, as well as $66.21 billion worth of oil and gas products during the previous Iranian year (ended March20, 2010).
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Iran is the third largest country in the Middle East and Central Asia in terms of exports and imports.