Georgia’s External Trade up by 20% in January

The preliminary data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) reads that in January 2018, the external merchandise trade of Georgia amounted to $816.6 million, 20.2% higher than the data of the same period last year.

Geostat says that exports last month equaled $222.7 million (26.0% higher), while imports stood at $593.9 million (18.2% higher).

The negative trade balance was $371.2 million in January 2018, and its share in external trade turnover constituted 45.5%. Export excluding re-export amounted to $167.5 million, 16.8% higher than the data of the same period 2017.

According to the report, in January 2018, the external trade turnover of Georgia with European Union countries amounted to $211.5 million, 6.6% more y/y.

Exports to the EU amounted to $64.2 million (21.4% higher), while imports stood at $147.2 million (1.2% higher).

The share of EU countries in the external trade turnover of Georgia amounted to 25.9%: 28.8% in exports and 24.8% in imports.

In January 2018, the external trade turnover of Georgia with the CIS totaled $305.2 million, up 38.2% compared to y/y.

Exports to CIS countries stood at $80.8 million (23.5% higher), while imports equaled $224.4 million, 44.4% higher compared to the same period of 2017.

The share of CIS countries in the external trade turnover of Georgia constituted 37.4%: 36.3% in exports and 37.8% in imports. In January 2018, compared to the previous year, CIS countries accounted for 38.7% of the overall trade deficit.

Georgia’s top trading partners last month were Turkey ($112.0 million), Russia ($94.1 million) and Azerbaijan ($91.1 million), followed by China ($10.118 mln), Armenia ($12.901 mln) and Ukraine ($8.339 mln).

The January 2018 share of the top ten trading partners in the total external trade turnover of Georgia was 69%.

As for Georgia's top exported commodities in January 2018, copper ores and concentrates took first place, equaling $34.1 million which is 15.3% of total exports. Exports of ferro-alloys totaled $27.3 million and its share in the total exports amounted to 12.3%. Motor cars were in the third place at $15.7 million, 7.0% of the total exports.

The top import commodities in January 2018 were petroleum and petroleum oil, the import of which amounted to $57.1 million and 9.6% of total imports, followed by the petroleum gases commodity group with $48.4 million, or 8.2% of imports. Motor cars came third at $29.8 million.