Page 18 - IRANRptNov18

Current account: transfers
185
406
509
565
511
427
558
Capital and financial account
-24,296
40,741
-22,161
-22,510
-8,002
113
/
Errors and omissions
-3,259
-17,766
-1,2j01
-2,595
-5,635
-1,350
-5,766
Source: CEIC, Central Bank of Iran
Iran’s current account surplus climb to $17bn in 2017
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated in March that the government held $112bn of foreign assets and reserves. It also indicated that Iran was running a current account surplus. The figures imply that Iran might withstand the sanctions without an external payments crisis.
Iran reported a current account surplus of $15.8bn in March 2018, compared with a surplus of $16.4bn in the previous year, according to CEIC data. Iran’s current account surplus rose to 3.9% of GDP in 2017 from 0.3% in 2016.
5.1.2 Import/export dynamics
Iran’s imports from Russian double in 1H of Persian year
In non-oil trade Iran’s exports exceed imports by $0.9bn in 1H of Persian year
The value of imports received by Iran from Russia in the first six months of the current Persian year (March 21-September 22) almost exactly doubled to $633mn, Tasnim News Agency reported on October 10, citing Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).
Iran continues to expand its business relations with Russia, with a multimodal plan to grow trade via Caspian Sea routes as well as via road and rail through Azerbaijan.
IRICA said the expansion in imports flowing from Russia was 99.88% y/y, but did not give a value for consignments received in 1H 2017.
Despite the early May US withdrawal from the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, Russia remains signed up to the accord, as do major power signatories, France, the UK, Germany and China. Although the European Union has taken the lead in attempting to devise mechanisms whereby foreign companies could continue trading with Iran without the risk of getting hit by secondary sanctions levied by Washington, R ussia has been in talks with the Iranians to set up its own sanctions-resistant trade channels.
Barter trades, denominated in rubles or rials, are, for instance, being looked at as an option.
Iran's non-oil exports in the first half of the current Persian year (March 21-September 22) exceeded $23.1bn, latest data from the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) shows.
The volume of non-oil exports reached 56.64mn tonnes, up 13% y/y. The year on year increase or decrease in the value was not given.
For the same period, the import flows into Iran reached a volume of 16mn tonnes and a value of $22.2 bn. There was a 9.3% decline in the former and a 11.93% decrease in the latter.
Iran’s main non-oil export items were gas condensate worth $2.418bn, liquefied propane valued at $1.74bn, light oils and other same-category products (but not gasoline) worth $861mn and methanol worth $693mn. IRICA attributed 30.39% of the exports to the petrochemical industry, 10.46% to gas condensate producers and 59.16% to other sectors.
Major imported items included passenger car parts for assembly worth $978mn, rice valued at $964mn, livestock with a value of $961mn, soybeans worth $705mn and imported electrodes worth $287mn.
The main export destinations were China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates,
18 IRAN Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com