Page 27 - GEORptNov21

The trade deficit amounted to $2.93bn, 39.2% of total trade turnover.
Georgia's top trading partners by exports were China ($370.5mn), Russia ($322.7mn) and Azerbaijan ($295.3mn), while top trading partners by imports were Turkey ($917.4mn), Russia ($545.3mn) and China ($459.4mn).
The top trading partners in the total external trade of Georgia were Turkey ($1.10bn), Russia ($868mn) and China ($829.9mn).
The top three export items were copper ores and concentrates ($465.9mn, 20.5% of total exports) motor vehicles ($248.3mn, 10.9% of total exports) and ferro-alloys ($228.5mn, 10% of total exports).
The top import commodities were motor vehicles ($461.8mn, 8.9% of total imports), petroleum and petroleum oils ($405mn, 7.8% of total imports), and copper ores and concentrates ($395.6mn, 7.6% of total imports).
5.1.1 Import/export dynamics
Georgia’s domestic exports strengthen on high metal prices
In September 2021, both exports (at $373.6mn, up 12.8% y/y, up 22.3% vs September 2019) and imports (at $925.8mn, up 23.4% y/y, up 15.1% vs September 2019) remained solid, according to Geostat, continuation of the last three months trend. Notably, last year’s low base and higher world commodity prices markedly boosted imports, causing the trade deficit to widen by 31.8% y/y to $552.2mn (which is also up 10.7% vs September 2019).
The top five exported commodities were copper (-32.4% y/y), ferro-alloys (+46.4% y/y), cars (+44.9% y/y), nuts (+24.6% y/y) and wine (+22.0% y/y) in September. Some 14.9% of exports were directed to the EU (-5.9% y/y), 48.0% to the CIS (+23.1% y/y) and 37.1% to other countries (+9.7% y/y).
The top five imports were copper (-18.6% y/y), petroleum (+102.9% y/y), cars (-8.1% y/y), pharmaceuticals (+9.8% y/y) and automatic data processing machines (+455.7% y/y) in September.
Overall, in 9M21, the trade deficit was up by 19.9% y/y (down 0.5% vs 9M19) to $4.0bn, as economic recovery and higher world commodity prices boosted imports (up 21.6% y/y and up 3.3% vs 9M19), while exports were also solid (up 24.0% y/y and up 9.0% vs 9M19).
The trade deficit of Georgia widened by 21% y/y to $4.05bn in January-September, but this was 0.5% less compared to the gap in the first nine months of 2019, according to data from the statistics office Geostat.
Compared to the same pre-crisis period January-September 2019, Georgia’s exports increased by 9.0% to $2.98bn, while imports advanced by only 3.3% y/y to $7.03bn.
The outstanding trade gap – one-quarter of the country’s GDP – was financed from remittances, which against expectations have strengthened during the pandemic, and by robust public borrowing.
Furthermore, a significant increase in the domestic exports is visible and it has prevented even tougher tensions within the balance of payments.
Thus, Georgia’s domestic exports increased by 28% in January-August this year (latest data available) compared to the same period of 2019, to $1.90bn.
27 GEORGIA Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com