Iran’s export to the EU falls by 97%

The trade between Iran and the EU shows a significant fall in the first half of 2019. Tehran Chamber of Commerce has published a report in which it shows that Iran’s export to Europe has fallen by 93 percent in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.

The coming goods from Europe has also declined and Iran has imported 53 percent less in terms of value with respect to a year ago.

Main export of Iran toward Europe has been based on oil-related goods and due to the tight US sanctions in this sector, European companies are quite reluctant to purchase products such as fuel and lubricants. While such products had a share of 88 percent in the exported goods during the first half of 2018, in the past six months, their share in export has fallen to 0.5 percent of total export to Europe.

Still, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Spain remain the first importers of Iranian goods.

Difficulties on money transfer and limitations of banking channels has made it very tough for Iran to purchase goods from Europe too.

Iran used to buy machinery, transportation equipment and chemical products from European countries. However, now these categories show biggest contraction. Iran has bought goods worth 2.1 billion euros from Europe in the first six months of 2019, showing 53% fall compared to 2018.