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commodities, seeking out direct contracts—rather than announcing international purchasing tenders— with smaller-sized trading houses.
Iran needed to import 4mn tonnes of wheat, 1.5mn tonnes of barley, 700,000 tonnes of raw sugar and 4mn to 5mn tonnes of corn, in the Iranian year ended March 2021, a senior agriculture ministry official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, was cited as saying.
As a country of 83mn, Iran is one of the world’s largest consumers of bread. It requires around 16mn tonnes of wheat annually.
Competition for international commodities is heating up as governments move to buy more to shore up their reserves, spurred into action by lockdowns. They have slowed supply chains and triggered export curbs.
Iran’s economy is set to fall deeper into recession this fiscal year and foreign reserves could drop to $73bn by March, a loss of almost $40bn in two years, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) stated in January.
4.2.2​ PPI dynamics
Iran’s autumn PPI turns negative for first time in four years
PMI for Iran falls into contraction territory
Iran’s producer price inflation (PPI) stood at -2.3% in the autumn period (September 23-December 21, 2019), marking the first negative reading for four years, the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) announced on February 1.
According to the data—compiled by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI)—the lowest figure was recorded for the coal industry and oil refineries (-10.7%). Next were paper and paper products (-4.6%) and petrochemicals (-2%).
The highest inflation rates in industry were for office and computing appliances (26.6%), garment production, processing, and dying (9.5%) and transportation equipment production (7.8%).
A purchasing managers’ index (PMI) provided by the Iran Chamber gives the Islamic Republic a reading of 45.79 in the fifth Persian calendar month (ended August 22) compared to 50.07 in the preceding month and 50.66 in the month before that.
With any figure below 50 indicating a contraction, the decline in the PMI figures
17​ IRAN Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com