TEHRAN - Iran exported 27,000 cars in the past Iranian calendar year (which ended on March 20), showing 190 percent rise compared to its previous year, the IRNA news agency quoted Iranian Government Spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht as saying on Monday.

Car production in Iran rose over 53 percent in the last calendar year. Iranian carmakers manufactured more than 1.13 million vehicles in the past year. 

The automobile industry, the biggest non-oil sector of the Iranian economy, constituting around 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), boomed over the decade ending in 2011 due to government support and the dearth of international competitors in the domestic market. 

MA