Georgia ups its exports to EU
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Georgia has developed its trading ties with European markets, delivering more Georgian products to consumers in Europe and possibly further abroad.
Preliminary data from the country’s National Statistics Office, Geostat, revealed that Georgia enjoyed a 21 percent increase in its exports to Europe in the first three months of this year, while imports decreased by five percent.
This revealed that Georgia boosted its export power and at the same time reduced its imports relying more on locally-produced goods. Furthermore, the data suggested that Georgia is now becoming less dependent on markets it formerly relied on, particularly Commonwealth of Independent States markets.
Geostat data showed that in January-March 2015, the country's external trade with the EU jumped by 0.4 percent compared to the corresponding indicators in the previous year. The total value of Georgia’s external trade with EU countries amounted to $637 million. Particularly, exports stood at $170 million, while imports amounted to $467 million.
Meanwhile, the external trade of Georgia with CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) dropped by 25 percent compared to January-March 2014.
In the first three months of 2015, the external trade of Georgia with CIS countries totaled $675 million. Exports stood at $175 million (55 percent lower than last year's numbers), while imports equaled to $500 million (2 percent lower than the last year's numbers).
In a nutshell, in the first three months of 2015, nearly 35 percent of Georgian exports went to CIS countries, and some 34 percent went to EU countries and the remaining 31 percent went to other countries. In terms of imports, about 28 percent came from CIS countries, 26 percent from EU countries and 46 percent from other countries, according to Geostat.
Georgia’s top trading partners by turnover for the first part of the year were Turkey with $361 million, Azerbaijan with $214 million and China with $192 million.