Bilateral trade between Iran and China reached over $11 billion in the eight months to August, according to figures by China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) reported in the Iranian media.
A Tuesday report by the official IRNA news agency cited GAC figures showing that trade between Iran and China had risen 19% year on year in January-August to reach a total of $11.16 billion.
The report said China’s imports from Iran had amounted to $4.946 billion in the eight months to August, up 14% from the same period last year.
Chinese exports to Iran rose 24% year on year in January-August to reach a total of %6.214 billion, showed the Chinese customs figures.
The figures showed that Iranian exports to China dropped 33% in August from the same last year to stand at $0.476 billion while imports from China rose 36% to $1.014 billion over the same month.
The figures cover non-oil trade between Iran and China over the January-August period.
That comes as Iran has supplied increased volumes of crude oil to China since the second half of last year.
The GAC does not normally release data related to oil imports from Iran because a bulk of the shipments are delivered to private buyers in the country.
Iran has relied on increased economic and energy ties with China to offset the impacts of American sanctions on its crude oil exports since 2018.
Chinese authorities have defended Beijing's growing ties with Tehran while criticizing the US government’s unjustified use of domestic sanctions to target normal trade ties between other countries.