Ahmadinejad says Iranian economy can survive without oil exports

BANDAR ABBAS, April 11 (MNA) - Iran can manage its economy even without crude exports, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday. “They (the West) intend to impose an embargo on our oil," he said during a visit to the southern province of Hormozgan. "We have as much hard currency as we need and the country will manage well, even if we don't sell a single barrel of oil for two or three years," he insisted. Iran, the second largest producer in OPEC, exports some $80 billion oil per year. The amount matches some 80 percent of its foreign revenue and some 60 percent of its annual budget. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports. After the EU embargo was announced in January, Iranian officials said Tehran would enact its own sanctions immediately, before European countries lined up alternative suppliers. Apart from Britain and France, Iran counts Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany, Italy and Portugal among its European customers.