German exports to Iran, mostly machines and equipment, jumped in the first half of the year following the removal of international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, official trade data showed on Monday.
Exports from Germany to Iran surged by 15 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2016 to €1.13 billion ($1.3 billion), reported Reuters quoting the Federal Statistics Office.
This compares with a rise of 1.4 percent in overall German exports in the same period and a fall of 14 percent in German exports to Iran in 2015.
"There is a huge demand in Iran for plant and equipment", said Michael Tockuss, head of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, adding that chemical products and electrical engineering were also doing well.
"And there is growing demand for technology from the renewable energy sector, mainly wind power stations," Tockuss said, noting the reluctance of banks to finance bigger deals between German and Iranian businesses was slowly eroding.
He said exports to Iran would further pick up in the coming months and are expected to rise by as much as 25 percent in through 2016 and by 30 percent in 2017.
"The sanctions against Iran were built up over several years and it now will take some years to reverse them and establish new business ties," he added.
In another positive sign, German exports to Russia fell only 3.5 percent to €10.1 billion in the January-June period after having plunged by 25 percent to €21 billion in 2015.
This indicates that the impact of international sanctions imposed against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine is bottoming out.
