Iran-EU Trade Reached €19 bln
Eurostat in its recent report announced that Iran has been 7th major oil exporter to the European Union in January-September 2011. According to the report, Iran-EU trade during the mentioned 9 months reached €19 billion and it is while since the mid-2010, the EU under the US pressure has imposed unilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic. In 2010, Iran-EU trade reached €24.5 billion showing 24 percent growth over 2009, Eurostat reported. Based on the report, the 27 European member states of the EU have imported €11.4 billion of various products from Iran in January-September 2011 showing no change over same period last year. In the same period, EU's exports to Iran have been valued at €7.6 billion showing 10.7 percent fall over same period last year. During January-September 2010, EU's exports to Iran stood at €8.5 billion, according to the report.
Based on the report, crude oil has been major Iranian product exported to EU in the mentioned 9 months. In recent years, Iran has been among the top ten oil exporters to EU and despite the sanctions it has been succeeded to maintain this role. In January-September 2011, Iran's oil exports to EU have surged to $ €10.39 billion showing 2.3 percent growth over same period last year, Eurostata announced. In the mentioned period, Iran has been ranked 7 in terms of oil exports to EU and Iranian crude has accounted for 4.9 percent of the total crude exported to EU importing €213 billion of crude oil. In 2010, Iran's oil exports to EU reached €12.79 billion.
The Central Bank of Iran governor Mahmoud Bahmani has predicted that inflation rate would remain below 20 percent for the eighth calendar month of Aban (ended November 21), saying that the inflation rate will be officially announced by December 1, the Pana news agency reported. The country's inflation rate increased by 0.8 percent to stand at 19.1 percent in the end of the seventh Iranian month of Mehr, Bahmani said, according to Press TV. The CBI chief further said that the country's inflation growth rate will decline in the coming months. He put last year's inflation rate at 12.4 percent.
Customs Administration Director Abbas Memarnejad said on Tuesday that the value of Iran's non-oil exports reached $27.46 billion in the eight-month period, IRNA reported. Memarnejad, who is also a deputy economy minister, noted that the figure indicates a 33.9-percent increase compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. He added that about 49.5 million tons of goods have been exported from the Islamic Republic between March and November, showing an 8.5-percent rise compared to the previous year. China bought $3.673 billion worth of non-oil products from Iran during the eight-month period, making it the leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods, followed by the United Arab Emirates ($3.106 billion), Iraq ($2.936 billion), India ($1.824 billion), and Afghanistan ($1.232 billion), he explained. Iran's main non-oil exports are petroleum gases, liquefied gas hydrocarbons, liquefied propane, methanol, mineral fuels, chemical products, plastics, fruits, nuts, fertilizers, and carpets. 