TEHRAN: Italy’s imports from Iran more than doubled in the first quarter of 2015, reaching €131 million compared to the same period in 2014, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.
The bilateral trade amounted to €268 million in the first three months of 2015, a 52 percent rise year on year, the report added.
Italy imported €131 million worth of goods from Iran, a 122 percent rise compared to the year before.
Exports to Iran rose by 32 percent and hit €277 million in the 3-month period.
Italy was the 9th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $618.41 million of non-oil goods to Italy and imported $1.05 billion of non-oil goods from the country.
On May 17, Iran and Italy signed a bilateral trade insurance agreement which is expected to help facilitate commercial transactions between the two countries.
The agreement was signed between the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) and Italy’s Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (SACE).
It is expected to provide insurance coverage for traders of the two countries over their mutual import and export plans.