LONDON, March 23. /TASS/. Iran’s oil exports reached their highest level for at least two years, overtaking the previous high of 1.3mn barrels a day, despite US sanctions, Ehsan Khandouzi, Iran's finance minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.

Khandouzi also noted that in the first 11 months of the year (the year according to the Iranian calendar starts on March 21), non-oil exports rose to $53 billion. This is 12% higher than in the same period of the previous year. Imports for the same period of time amounted to $60 billion. According to the minister, data on exports and imports prove that "Iranian economy cannot be isolated."

The politician attributed the growth of Iran's non-oil revenues in particular to stepping up the fight against tax evasion.

Earlier, Hamid Hosseini, spokesman of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, told the IRNA news agency that the income of the country from oil exports in the period from March to September 2022 amounted to $26 billion, which is $8 billion more than last year's figures. Hosseini stressed that most of the oil exports come from China whose share of world GDP is 15%.