More than $95 billion in foreign currency from Iran’s non-oil exports since 2018 has not been repatriated to the country, the Guards-linked Tasnim news agency reported on Friday, citing official trade data.
“Out of over $270 billion in total non-oil exports from 2018 to 2025, nearly $95.6 billion—about 35 percent—has yet to return to Iran’s official financial system,” Tasnim said.
The report said the unreturned funds relate to exports excluding government-controlled sectors such as oil, gas, and electricity.
Iran's top non-oil exports are dominated by petrochemical products such as liquefied propane, methanol, and bitumen, as well as agricultural products like pistachios and saffron. Key export destinations include China, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates, though China has recently been a particularly important market for petrochemicals.
In the period since 2022, Iran recorded $146 billion in non-oil exports, of which $56 billion, or nearly 38 percent, has not been brought back into the country.
Hossein Samsami, a member of the parliament’s economic committee, criticized the government’s handling of the issue following recent remarks by the president about a shortage of foreign exchange.
“The president said that we do not have even one billion dollars and must bargain to find it,” Samsami wrote on his personal page. “Meanwhile, nearly 100 billion dollars of export revenues have not returned to the country over the past seven years. If the law were properly enforced, we would even have surplus currency.”
Under Iranian law, exporters are required to repatriate foreign currency earned abroad, and failure to do so constitutes a violation under anti-smuggling legislation. However, Tasnim quoted experts as saying that lax enforcement and loopholes have allowed large sums to remain overseas or be used for informal imports.
