Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 24 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iran's trade deficit has dropped by 40 percent in the first 10 months of the current year, Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said, IRIB News reported.
Hosseini said that previous year Iran's trade deficit stood at $15 billion, while this year it decreased to $9 billion.
The minister said that despite sanctions, Iran was able to increase its exports as well - by some 30 percent in the mentioned period.
Iran exported some 58.3 million tons of non-oil goods worth some 31.7 million dollars, in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year which began March 20, 2012.
Iran also imported over 40 million dollars' worth of goods in the aforementioned period carrying out an overall trade volume of $71.7 billion.
Iranian Customs Administration director Abbas Memarnejad said last month that the country is currently conducting trade with 151 countries. He referred to liquefied propane, urea, methanol and cement as the major exported goods and iron and steel ingots, wheat and soy meal as the main imported ones.
Iran plans to exports 51 million dollars' worth of non-oil goods and technical and engineering services by the end of current year (March 19, 2013).
Minister: Iran's trade deficit drops by 40 percent
Iran's trade deficit has dropped by 40 percent in the first 10 months of the current year, Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said.