Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.26 / Trend F.Milad /
Iran's annual non-oil exports will reach 320 billion dollars by the end of the Fifth Economic Development Plan (2015), Deputy director of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Kioumars Fathollah Kermanshahi, said on Saturday.
Iran's technical and engineering services exports would account for 100 billion dollars of the mentioned amount, the IRNA News Agency quoted Kermanshahi as saying.
Iran has exported over 34.5 billion dollars worth of non-oil goods in the first ten months of the current Iranian Calendar year, which began March 20, 2012, showing 2.5 percent decrease compared to the same period previous year.
Iran also imported 43.7 billion dollars worth of goods in the mentioned period, marking overall trade value of 78.2 billion dollars, the ISNA News Agency reported.
Iran imports also faced 12.5 percent decrease in comparison to the same time span last year.
Iran's overall trade volume in the first nine months of the year had stood at 73 billion dollars. Exports accounted for 32 billion dollars of the mentioned amount.
Iraq, China, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, and India were the top importers of Iranian goods during the period, while the United Arab Emirates, China, Turkey, South Korea, and Switzerland were the leading exporters of goods to Iran.
The head of Central Bank of Iran said last week that Iran's exports have been doubled in the past few months.
On the contrary, imports have faced sharp decrease due to the high price of foreign currencies, he IRNA News Agency quoted Mahmoud Bahmani as saying.
He went on to note that the government has asked Iranian businessmen to increase their trade volume with certain countries, in which Iran has considerable foreign currency reserves.
Iran exported $43.7 billion worth of non-oil goods last year and imported $61.8 billion worth of goods, to hit the unprecedented mark of $105 billion in annual trade
Iran also earned 4 million dollars last year by exporting technical and engineering services to over 60 countries.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Iranian Central Bank.
U.S. sanctions entered into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.
In October, the EU approved another major package of economic sanctions on Iran.
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