Iran's Ambassador to Iraq Hassan Danaeifar made the remarks while pointing to the country’s foreign economy achievements in relation to Iraq over recent years; “growth of non-oil exports to Iraq has experienced a 23-percent increase in the fourth months of the current Iranian calendar year as compared with the same period last year.”
He outlined Tehran-Baghdad ties in all economic, political, pilgrimage and tourism areas as exceptional pointing to the positive and upward trend of these relations.
Iran's Commercial Counselor in Iraq Ebrahim Rezazadeh also said “the total value of Iran’s non-oil exports to Iraq in the timespan of March 20 to July 21 amounted to 2.46 billion dollars while the figure for the same period last year only reached 1.96 billion dollars marking a 23 percent growth in our exports to the neighboring state.”
“As weight regards, Iran’s exports to Iraq in the same period have fallen by 7 per cent,” underlined the official asserting “the decline in weight indicates a change in the basket of Iranian goods exported to Iraq, particularly following the ban on cement imports on the part of the Iraqi government.”
Iran, as one of Iraq's most important trade partners, which supplies majority of its goods demands due to proximity, quality and cheapness in addition to cultural and religious commonalities.
Rezazadeh stated that Iran exported a total of 6.2 billion dollars of non-oil goods to the neighboring country in the previous Iranian year (ended March 20) to mark Iraq’s third largest trade partner after Turkey and China.
Iraq’s imports from various countries fell by 38 per cent last year which was partly due to activation of its factories and domestic production while the rest pertained to economic problems caused by the global decline in oil prices.