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Iran Economy Update
Issue 38/2017 TUESDAY MARCH 28RD
IDRO and Russian Transmashholding Company reached an agreement in Moscow on Monday evening to finance the manufacturing of passenger and freight cars in Iran, Mehr news agency reported. IDRO President Mansour Moazzami is accompanying President Rouhani in his two- day visit to Moscow. Mohammadreza Nematzadeh, minister of Industry, Mine & Trade has been another Iranian senior official that met with some of Russian senior managers and investors on the first day of the arrival of the Iranian delegation to Moscow.
President Rouhani and his accompanying high-ranking political and economic delegation including Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and minister of Industry Mohammadreza Nematzadeh landed in Moscow last night Tehran time for meeting with his Russian counterpart. Press TV wrote on March 24 that the two sides would discuss “leading bilateral, regional and international issues” and would sign agreements to bolster cooperation in legal and judicial sectors, roads and urban development, technology and communications, energy and sports. The Iranian embassy has announced that the two sides will sign 15 MoUs during this trip. Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif tweeted on Monday: “With Pres. Rouhani in Russia to reaffirm strong ties & enhance economic relations, regional cooperation & fight against extremist terror.”
Rouhani and Putin are slated to meet today. This would be the ninth meeting between the two presidents but the first one that takes place through the trip of Rouhani to Moscow.
Tasnim news wrote on Monday that the contract for supplying 100,000 bpd of Iranian oil to Russia is likely to be signed during this trip. (of note, in an interview with the Seda Weekly magazine on May 17th, NIOC Managing Director Ali Kardor was asked about the reason Iran has signed such a deal with Russia. “Anyway, Iran has strategic relations with Russia.
Establishing such types of interactions with countries with whom you have strategic relations is normal in all over the world,” replied Kardor. He said that the oil that will be supplies to Russia will be sourced from the increase in production that the country will achieve by the end of the Persian month of Farvardin (21 March – 20 April)).
Meanwhile, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said that that Iran plans to give presentation on new contracts for Russian companies. In a separate development, Sputnik, a Russian English-language news agency wrote on Monday that “the year-on-year trade turnover between Russia and Iran almost doubled in January 2017 and exceeded $155 million.” In a statement to Sputnik, the Russian ministry of Economic Development has explained that in January, Russia's exports to Iran had increased by 2.7 times up to $117,7 million, while the exports of Iran had increased by 6.3 percent up to $37.3 million.
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Eghtesad Online, a Persian-Language Iranian economic news website published some details of the Iran-Russia trade volume in the past decade that can be seen in the following table:
Year Iran’s exports to Russia
Iran’s imports from Russia
Iran’s trade balance with Russia
year-on-year trade change
2005 183 1,034 -851 --
2006 289 665 -376 57%
2007 367 866 -499 27%
2008 358 1193 -834 -2%
2009 333 908 -575 -7%
2010 330 433 -103 -1%
2011 371 759 -388 12%
2012 501 1,639 -1,130 35%
2013 317 689 -372 -37%
2014 295 639 -344 -7%
2015 173 517 -344 -41%
Note: Figures are in million US dollar
