MOSCOW, October 15 (RIA Novosti) – Iran's Exports Development Bank has allocated $300 million to boost the country's exports to Iraq, the head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.
"Iraqi imports from different countries have declined 40 percent; meanwhile, in the first six months of the year, Iran has exports worth of $5.5 billion in engineering and technical services, transit of goods and energy," Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi Shirazi said as quoted by the Mehr news agency.
"There is 11-18 percent decline in Iran's realized non-oil exports to the western neighbor, which however is justified by the fact that exports to Iraq has declined worldwide," Shirazi noted, saying that Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have significantly reduced exports to Iraq.
According to Shirazi, Iran's total export will amount to a lump sum of $11 billion by the end of the current fiscal year (March 21, 2015).
Bilateral trade between Iran and Iraq stood at $12 billion in 2013, making Iraq one of Iran's top five trading partners.
Iraq is the most significant export market in Iran's non-oil trade.
