Georgia’s Foreign Trade in 2018

Georgia’s foreign trade turnover increased by 17% in 2018 y/y, reaching USD 12.48 billion, according to the preliminary figures released by the state statistics office, Geostat, on January 21.

Exports from Georgia increased by 22.9% year-on-year to USD 3.36 billion and imports were up by 14.9% y/y to USD 9.12 billion in 2018, with trade gap standing at USD 5.76 billion.

Trade turnover with the EU-member states stood at USD 3.36 billion in 2018, which is 17.7% increase over the same period of last year. Exports from Georgia to the EU-member states increased by 11.5% y/y to USD 730.3 million, while imports constituted USD 2.63 billion in 2018, which is 19.5% increase y/y.

Trade turnover with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) increased by 25% y/y to USD 4.37 billion. Georgia’s exports to CIS countries were up by 41.6% y/y to USD 1.68 billion and imports increased by 16.5% to USD 2.7 billion.

Turkey remains Georgia’s largest trading partner with USD 1.7 billion in 2018, followed by Russia, Azerbaijan and China with USD 1.37 billion, USD 1.09 billion and USD 1.03 billion, respectively.

They are followed by Ukraine with total trade turnover of USD 690.6 million; Armenia – USD 627.3 million; the United States – USD 519.6 million; Germany – USD 482.3 million; Bulgaria – USD 440.4 million; France – USD 307.5 million.

Azerbaijan tops the list of largest trading partners by exports with USD 502.7 million, followed by Russia, Armenia and Bulgaria with USD 437.3 million, USD 284.9 million and USD 258.9 million, respectively.

Turkey, Russia, China and Azerbaijan are the top trading partners of Georgia in terms of imports with USD 1.47 billion, USD 935.7 million, USD 833.6 million and USD 586 million, respectively.

Copper ores and concentrates reclaimed the first place in the list of export commodities in 2018 with USD 504.1 million, followed by re-export of cars – USD 408.9 million; ferroalloys – USD 352.6 million; wine – USD 196.9 million; cigarettes – USD 148.8 million; medicines – USD 147.2 million; spirits – USD 129.1 million; mineral waters – USD 110.2 million; nitrogen fertilizers – USD 92 million; gold – USD 69.8 million; other commodities – USD 1.2 billion.

Petroleum and petroleum oils are still on top of the list of import commodities with USD 863.9 million, followed by cars – USD 598.2 million; copper ores and concentrates – USD 396.7 million; medicines – USD 338.6 million; petroleum gases – USD 283.9 million; mobile and other wireless phones – USD 198 million; cigarettes – USD 186.8 million; automatic data processing machines – USD 126.6 million; wheat – USD 114.9 million; gas turbines – USD 83.8 million; other commodities – USD 5.9 billion.

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