Iran’s commercial exchanges with its top trading partner China stood at $3.94 billion during the first three months of 2020 to register a 30.4% decline compared with the corresponding period of 2019.

As data provided by the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China show, Iran’s exports to China totaled $1.81 billion, indicating a 52.7% year-on-year decrease.

In return, China exported $2.13 billion worth of commodities to Iran during the period under review, up by 15.9% YOY.

Bilateral trade in March stood at $1.4 billion. Iran’s exports to China accounted for $667.19 million of the figure while imports stood at $736.69 million.

Iran-China's 2019 trade stood at $23.02 billion to register a decline of 34.3% compared to 2018.

Iran exported $13.43 billion worth of commodities to China last year, 36.3% less year-on-year.

In return, China exported $9.59 billion worth of goods to Iran, down 31.2% YOY.

According to the American Enterprise Institute, China invested $26.92 billion in Iran from 2005 to 2019.

Of the total investment volume, 1.53 billion were made in chemical industries, $11.1 billion in energy, $4.96 billion in metals, $160 million in real estate, $6.92 billion in transport and $2.25 billion in utilities.

The value of China’s overseas investment and construction combined since 2005 exceeds $2 trillion.

In 2019, the average size of Chinese construction deals overseas shrank and investment fell outright. Chinese greenfield investment and the Belt and Road Initiative projects help boost the economy, provided they don’t increase dependency.