Iran’s trade with its biggest European trade partner, Germany, has been hit hard by U.S. sanctions in 2019, according to data from the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Exports from the biggest European economy to Iran plunged 52.6 percent year-on-year to $261 million in January and February, German Funke media group reported on May 10.
Imports from Iran also took a nosedive, declining 42 percent to $41 million in this period.
"The market in Iran is extremely difficult because of the US sanctions and because of the country's economic framework," the head of the German-Iranian chamber of commerce, Dagmar von Bohnstein, was quoted as saying by the Funke newspapers.
With U.S. trade and banking sanction reimposed last August, Iran’s non-oil exports have declined across the board. Oil exports have virtually come to a standstill in May, as the U.S. ended import exemptions it had offered to eight countries in November.
Iran’s economy has been hit hard by the sanctions, with its currency falling almost fourfold and inflation topping 50 percent.
