Azerbaijan, Baku, Apr. 7/ Trend F.Milad/
The share of foreign trade in Iran's gross domestic production (GDP) has decreased to 19 percent in the calendar year which ended on March 2011, from 22 percent in the calendar year which ended on March 2003, says the latest report released by the Statistics Center of Iran.
Customs Administration head Abbas Memarnejad said on April 4 that non-oil trade balance decreased to $17.9 billion last calendar year from $30.5 billion the year before.
He added that exports rose by 28 percent year on year, while imports declined by 4 percent.
Iran exported around $43.7 billion worth of non-oil goods in the past calendar year, and imported some $61.8 billion worth of goods, to hit the unprecedented mark of $105 billion in annual trade.
The Central Bank of Iran put the GDP figure for the year to March 2011 at over 539 trillion rials (some $41 billion), up 5.8 percent year on year. The GDP growth rate stood at 3 percent in its preceding year.
On March 16, Trade Promotion Organization director Hamid Safdel said Iran's main non-oil exports are gas condensates, petrochemical products and engineering services, amounting to $9 billion, $13 billion, and $4 billion respectively.
Other exports, including carpets, handicrafts and agricultural goods such as nuts, were valued at about $17 billion.
First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi announced in January that Iran's overall non-oil trade balance is anticipated to reach zero in the next Iranian calendar year.