Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 20
By Fatih Karimov– Trend:
Iran’s consumer goods' imports registered a huge rise by 70 percent during the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Aug. 22) and stood at $4.449 billion. The value was $2.613 billion during the same months of the preceding year.
The volume of the imported consumer goods amounted to 1.872 million tons in the 5-month period, compared 1.065 million tons in the same period of the preceding year.
According to a report from the Islamic Republic’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPOI), about 23 percent of Iran’s imported goods in the 5-month period were consumer goods.
Earlier certain experts warned about rush of the consumer goods into Iran’s market following the removal of international sanctions in 2016. The issue is more alarming for Iran’s economy given the fact that capital goods shared only 14.9 percent of Iran’s total imports in terms of value and 2.1 percent in terms of volume respectively during the first five months of current fiscal year.
Capital goods are used in producing other goods, rather than being bought by consumers.
The Islamic Republic imported 298,000 tons of capital goods, worth $2.905 billion in the 5-month period. It is while the country’s import of capital goods stood at $3.311 billion during the first five months of last fiscal year(March 20-Aug. 22, 2016).
On the other hand, intermediate goods shared 60 percent of Iran’s imported goods in terms of value in the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 20-Aug. 22), which can be understood as a sign of dependence of Iran’s manufacturing sector on import of such goods which include components for industry.
Intermediate goods are products utilized to produce a final or finished product. These goods are sold between industries for resale or for the production of other goods.
Iran imported 11.484 million tons of intermediate goods, worth $11.682 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The volume of the goods was equal to 80.7 percent of Iran’s total imports’ volume.
Iran imported $19.442 billion worth of goods during the first five months of current fiscal year, which indicates a 16.5 percent increase, compared to the same period of the previous year.