Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
In recent months, a major decline in imports to Iran has been observed, and the import of essential products has dropped significantly, Farhad Ehteshamzad, head of Iran’s Import Federation, said in an interview with the Young Journalists Club (YJC).
He said that first of all, sanctions have restricted Iran’s trade with other countries. On the other hand, instability in the foreign exchange market, several instructions in this regard caused many problems for processing of orders and allocation of foreign currency, he noted.
Saying that issues at the customs were one of the factors causing a decline in imports in the first half of this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), he added that private companies and local manufacturers have faced many problems over the past few months.
More than 90 percent of the imported goods accounted for raw materials, spare parts, production equipment, he said. Production and export are directly dependent on imports, he noted.
“Decrease in imports means increasing production costs or substitution of import at the expense of local resources,” he said. “This means additional expenses for domestic manufacturers and leads to increase in the price of a product. That’s why we have witnessed an increase in mineral water prices in recent months, because the packaging price of these products has increased.”