News in Brief
Iran’s non-oil exports to Afghanistan up 41% in 2-month period
The commercial attaché of Iran in Afghanistan said that Iran’s non-oil export to the neighboring country registered a 41 percent growth in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2024) compared to the same period last year.
Iran’s export of non-oil goods to Afghanistan increased by $102m in the first two months of the year, showing a 41% hike compared to last year’s corresponding period, Hossein Roustaei said.
He added that Afghanistan is Iran’s sixth export target market and that the neighboring country is one of the export target countries with the highest positive balance of trade with Iran, Tasnim reported.
He put the volume of Iran’s export of non-oil goods to Afghanistan from March 19 to May 22, 2024, at $350 million, showing a 41 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
In this period, Iran exported 181,000 tons of non-oil goods to Afghanistan, Roustaei noted.
Light oils, oil products, oil gases, ingot, iron, steel, compound, polyethylene, light- and heavy hydrocarbons, foodstuff, urea, tomato, tree apples, cement, types of polyethylene, potatoes, fresh fruits and vegetables, orange and infant formula were the main products exported from Iran to the neighboring country, he stated.
Iran imported more than $7m of products from Afghanistan between March 19 and May 22, 2024, he added.
Iran, Russia call for boosting transit via INSTC
Officials from Iran and Russia emphasized the need to boost transit via the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and developing rail cooperation between the two countries aimed at increasing the transport of goods and commodities. In a meeting with Special Aide to the Russian President Igor Levtin and Chairperson of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky, Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash stressed the need to develop transit and implement construction operation of the Rasht-Astara Railway, Mehr reported.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed the latest situation of accelerating the implementation of the construction operation of the 164-km Rasht-Astara railway, increasing the volume of transit through Iran and completing the construction operation of the INSTC.