Netherlands 4.6%, France 4.4%, South Africa 4.1%, Taiwan 4.1%
(2005)

Imports:
$45.48 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.)

Imports - commodities:
industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods,
foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military
supplies

Imports - partners:
Germany 13.9%, UAE 8.4%, China 8.3%, Italy 7.1%, France 6.3%, South
Korea 5.4%, Russia 4.9% (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$58.46 billion (2006 est.)

Debt - external:
$14.8 billion (2006 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
$408 million (2002 est.)

Currency (code):
Iranian rial (IRR)

Currency code:
IRR

Exchange rates:
rials per US dollar - 9,246.94 (2006), 8,964 (2005), 8,614 (2004),
8,193.9 (2003), 6,907 (2002), note, Iran has been using a managed
floating exchange rate regime since unifying multiple exchange rates
in March 2002

Fiscal year:
21 March - 20 March

Communications Iran

Telephones - main lines in use:
18.986 million (2005)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
8.5 million (2005)

Telephone system:
general assessment: inadequate, but currently being modernized and
expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and
increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing
telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently
connected
domestic: the addition of new fiber cables and modern switching and
exchange systems installed by Iran's state owned telecom company
have improved and expanded the main line network greatly; main line
availability has more than doubled to 19 million lines since 1995;
additionally, mobile service has increased dramatically serving some
8.5 million subscribers in 2005
international: country code - 98; HF radio and microwave radio relay
to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria,
Kuwait, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; submarine fiber-optic cable to
UAE with access to Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG);
Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line runs from Azerbaijan
through the northern portion of Iran to Turkmenistan with expansion
to Georgia and Azerbaijan; satellite earth stations - 9 Intelsat and
4 Inmarsat

Radio broadcast stations:
AM 72, FM 5, shortwave 5 (1998)

Radios:
17 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:
28 (plus 450 low-power repeaters) (1997)

Televisions:
4.61 million (1997)

Inter