January-October: Georgia’s external trade grows 22%

Georgia’s external trade has grown 22 percent in the first 10 months of the year, reaching $9.95 billion, shows latest data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

Between January and October 2016 the value of Georgia’s exports dropped seven percent to $1.70 billion, while the value of imports increased 31 percent to $8.25 billion, said Geostat.

Georgia’s trade deficit equalled $6.55 billion in the first 10 months of 2016, which was a 66 percent share of the country's total trade turnover, showed the latest data by Geostat.

Trade deficit is an economic measure of a negative balance of trade in which a country's imports exceeds its exports.

Trade with EU countries

Between January-October Georgia's external trade turnover with EU countries grew 10 percent and amounted to $2.82 billion. These countries made up a 28 percent share in Georgia's total external trade turnover, said Geostat.

Trade with CIS countries

In January-October 2016 Georgia's external trade turnover with countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were worth $2.12 billion (six percent decrease). Countries in the CIS made up a 21 percent share in the total external trade turnover of Georgia in the reporting period.

Georgia’s top trading partners in January-October 2016

In January-October, Georgia’s top three trading partners were:

• Canada ($1.8 billion)
• Turkey ($1.2 billion)
• Russia ($687 million)

What are Georgia’s main exports?

Georgia's top exported items in January-October were:

• Copper ores and concentrates (worth $265 million/16 percent of total exports)
• Nuts (worth $146 million/nine percent of total exports)
• Motor cars (worth $138 million/eight percent of total exports)

What are Georgia’s main imports?

Georgia's top imported items were:

• Medicines (worth $2.6 billion/32 percent of total imports)
• Petroleum and petroleum oils (worth $476 million/six percent of total imports)
• Motor cars (worth $374 million/five percent of total imports)

Regarding import of medicines, $2.3 billion of medicine was specifically used as Hepatitis C treatment.