Iran’s trade with SCO up by 29% in spring
Iran’s trade with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in the spring saw a 29 percent increase, said a senior official in Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.
Majid Karimi, director-general of the financial and commercial markets study office at the ministry, told IRNA on Saturday that Iran’s non-oil trade with 11 member states of the SCO reach 9.85 billion dollars in spring.
He said that Iran’s non-oil exports to those countries amounted to 5.5 billion dollars with a 20 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Its imports accounted for 4.35 billion dollars up by 41 percent.
China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, and Uzbekistan topped Iran’s list of exports destinations among the SCO members this spring, according to Karimi.
He highlighted the presence of China and Russia in the SCO as the two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and India as an emerging economy adding to the significance of Iran’s accession to the regional organization.
Karimi said that the SCO could remove the dollar and euro from transactions between member states and plan for a single currency in the future, noting that Iran has offered using insurance and financial channels.
The SCO can also adopt proper approaches to sustainable collaborations on energy, as two world’s biggest energy producers (Russia and Iran) and two world’s biggest energy consumers (China and India) are members of the organization.