Quarterly imports of the sector increased by 22.52% year-on-year and 8.83% quarter-on-quarter, the report added.
The winter of the fiscal 2017-18 saw exports of 'Mineral Extraction' sector grow by 37.39% YOY and 1.57% over autumn.
Imports of this economic sector surged by 87.38%, the highest growth among all sectors, compared with the same period of the year before and 29.10% over the previous quarter, Financial Tribune reported.
Q4 exports by the 'Fisheries' sector rose by 4.88% YOY but decreased by 3.59% compared with Q3. A 7.1% rise was posted for the fisheries sector’s Q4 imports compared with the year before while a 14.15% decline was registered compared with the preceding quarter.
The “Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry” sector saw a 23.25% increase in exports in Q4 compared with the same period of the year before and a 5.48% rise over Q3. Imports of this sector grew by 16.51% YOY and 14.24% QOQ.
Last year, Iran’s exports and imports saw an 8% and 32% increase respectively compared with the year before, the report concluded.
Data provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show Iran’s non-oil foreign trade during the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2018) stood at $101.23 billion, indicating a 15.5% rise compared with the year before (March 2016-17).
Exports hit 132.3 million tons worth $46.93 billion, indicating a 6.56% rise YOY while imports amounted to 38.73 million tons worth $54.3 billion, up 24.31% YOY.
The key driver of growth in imports was the rising inflow of essential goods, auto parts and capital goods.
The export of industrial goods saw a rise of 22.27% last year while exports of petrochemicals and gas condensates experienced a decline of 8.29% and 3.28%, respectively.
The biggest exports include petrochemical products worth $15.14 billion (accounting for 32% of the value of total export), followed by gas condensates with $7.79 billion (16% of total exports), liquefied natural gas with $2.49 billion (5% of total exports), liquefied propane with $1.47 billion (over 3% of total exports), light crude oil, excluding gasoline, with $1.32 billion (3% of total exports) and methanol with $1.17 million (2.5% of total exports).
China, the UAE, Iraq, South Korea and Turkey were Iran’s top export destinations last year.
As for imports, a total of $2.89 billion worth of auto parts (excluding tires) were imported into Iran last year, more than any other commodity shipped into the country during the period, according to Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture. It had a 5.3% share in the total value of Iran's imports during the period.
Field corn was Iran’s second biggest imported item last year, as the country imported $1.61 billion worth of the crop (3%). It was followed by 56,134 automobiles, excluding ambulance and hybrid cars, valued at $1.31 billion; rice ($1.21 billion); soybeans ($943 million); bananas ($544 million); mobile phones ($529 million); LED/LCD displays ($526 million); frozen beef ($524 million); barley ($518 million); soybean meal ($503 million); as well as unprocessed and sunflower oil ($424).
The import of intermediate goods stood at 29.91 million tons worth $32.75 billion accounting for 60.31% of total Imports last year. The import of $8.69 billion worth of 895,000 tons of capital goods accounted for 16.02% of overall imports.
Major exporters to Iran were China with $13.21 billion, the UAE with $10.06 billion, South Korea with $3.71 billion, Turkey with $3.19 billion and Germany with $3.83 billion.
Iran's economy grew 3.7% during the last fiscal year (March 2017-18), according to the latest reports released by the Central Bank of Iran and the Statistical Center of Iran.
The services sector registered the highest growth rate last year with 6.8%, as production in the sectors of industry and agriculture grew by 1.6% and 1% respectively.