Iran Exports to Russia Rise 27 Percent

EghtesadOnline: Iran exported more than $230 million worth of non-oil goods to Russia during the first 11 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2017-Feb. 19), which registers a 27.74% increase compared with last year’s corresponding period, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration announced.

News ID: ۷۸۲۱۲۴

14 March 2018

Imports from Russia into Iran during the period stood at more than $615 million, indicating a 58.34% decline year-on-year.

Iran-Russia trade totaled $845 million over the 11-month period, registering a 49% decrease YOY.

During the 14th session of Iran-Russia Economic Cooperation Commission held in Moscow from March 4 to 6, the two sides signed several memoranda of understanding in the presence of Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Masoud Karbasian and his Russian counterpart Maxim Oreshkin with the aim of expanding bilateral ties, Financial Tribune reported.

The MoUs pertained to the fields of gas, geological cooperation, joint investment and finance in the industrial and mining sector, research on underground resources and the Caspian seabed, investment in producing thermal electricity, cultural cooperation, transportation and wheat trade involving Iran, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Karbasian was leading a 75-member economic delegation comprised of government officials and representatives from the Iranian private sector to Moscow.

Russia’s energy minister and co-head of Iran-Russia Intergovernmental Commission, Alexander Novak, said at a meeting of the commission on Tuesday that Russia and Iran can sign the document that is expected to become a blueprint for free trade between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union countries in May.

“The move to enter into a temporary agreement making for a free trade zone to be set up between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, which is currently at an advanced stage, will obviously trigger further development of our bilateral trade and expansion of investment cooperation,” he was quoted as saying by TASS.

The 13th Iran-Russia Economic Commission, held in Tehran in December 2016, was chaired by Novak.