With declining oil revenues due to US unilateral sanctions
against Iran's oil exports, attention was paid to non-oil exports to increase hard
currency inflows.
This issue is so important that the 13th administration
emphasized it in the very first days of its work, and even the issue of trade
and foreign exchange policy and ways to increase and develop non-oil exports
were discussed at the meeting of the administration’s economic coordination
headquarters.
Of course, petrochemical products have a large share in
non-oil exports.
Hassan Abbaszadeh, director of planning and development of
the National Petrochemical Company, regarding the share of petrochemical
products in Iran's non-oil exports, told IRNA: "Non-oil exports are a wide
range of products, including mineral, agricultural, petrochemical products,
etc."
He continued: "During last calendar year (ended on
March 20), due to the fact that the price of petrochemical products in the
global markets was reduced due to falling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic,
petrochemical exports accounted for 25.2% of non-oil exports, which was 23% a
year earlier.”
Abbaszadeh estimated the country's total revenue from
non-oil exports at $35 billion, of which $9 billion was the share of petrochemical
products.
He said: "At the beginning of this year, the prices of
petrochemical products were strengthened and it is estimated that the income of
petrochemical exports will reach $14 billion this calendar year. The performance
of the last 5 months also shows that it is possible to reach $14 billion in
revenue this year.”