Georgia sees decrease in imports
By Vusala Abbasova
The volume of import in Georgia has decreased by 9 percent over January-September 2015 compared to the same period of the past year.
The National Statistics Office of Georgia reported that the volume of the import in the country amounted to $5.66 billion.
Oil and oil products, passenger cars are the main products imported in Georgia over the reported period. This list is replenishes with petroleum gases and gaseous hydrocarbons, grain electrical transformers and medicaments.
Actual drop in value of imports was even larger – about 14 percent – if excluding one-off import of donated C hepatitis medicines, which, according to the Healthcare Ministry, stood at 750 million lari (roughly $313.8 million).
The import of drugs has made as many as 9.5 percent of total volume of import amounted to $536.2 million over the reported period. This figure is more by $308 million compared to the same period of the past year.
The import of oil and oil products amounted to 8.9 percent of the total volume of import of Georgia over January-September 2015, amounting to $504.2 million, which is less by $192 million compared to the same period of 2014.
Some $349.3 million has made the import of passenger cars in Georgia, amounting to 6.2 percent of the total volume of import over the reported period. This figure is less by $183 million compared to January-September 2014.
The volume of petroleum gases and gaseous hydrocarbons import made 5.1 percent of the total volume of import of Georgia in amount of $292 million over the reported period, which is more by $52 million compared to January-September, 2014.
The volume of grain import amounted to 1.5 percent of the total volume of Georgian import over January-September, 2015. This figure amounted to $84.5 million, decreasing by $18.1 million compared to the same period of the past year.
Georgia's main import partners are Turkey, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Germany, Russia, the United States and China, according to the Trade Economics.
Imports from the EU were up by 7 percent to $1.84 billion in January-September, 2015, accounting for 33 percent in country’s total imports.
Georgia’s imports from CIS member states were down by 6 percent to $1.39 billion, accounting for 25 percent of Georgia’s total imports.
Turkey remains Georgia’s largest trading partner with the turnover reaching $1.1 billion in January-September, 2015. Georgian imports from Turkey were down by 23.3 percent compared to first nine months of last year at $962.9 million.
Turkey is followed by Azerbaijan with trade turnover of $590.7 million in the first nine months of 2015. Georgian exports to Azerbaijan declined by 53.2 percent to $199.1 million, mostly due to sharp fall in re-export of vehicles from $207.2 million in January-September of 2014 to $55.1 million in the same period of 2015. Imports from Azerbaijan were down by 13.6 percent to $391.5 million.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz