Page 29 - GEORptSep21

and, more importantly when it comes to the long-term trend, they were 24.2% up compared to 1H 2019, according to statistics office Geostat. Furthermore, the rise was distributed across many categories of goods that contribute to export diversification.
Certain categories of goods boasted massive export growth rates in the first half of the year, such as ferro-alloys (+59% to 13.5% of total exports) or T-shirts (+81% y/y to 2.6% of total), but the "other commodities" category, which accounted for 29.8% of the total, expanded by 55% as well.
In terms of countries of destination, among the four main markets, three of them (China, Russia and Turkey) increased their share in total exports to a combined 49.6%, while Bulgaria lost ground to 8.9%.
Domestic exports accounted in June (and in the entire 1H) for 73% of exports - still a high share compared to the pre-crisis period (59% in June 2019, 62% in 1H 2019), indicating that the country is recovering faster than foreign trade in general in the region.
Notably, Georgia’ domestic exports weathered the COVID-19 crisis particularly well, as they were 5% up y/y in June 2020 and boasted positive growth rates during the second half of last year. In contrast, they performed somehow less impressively in the first part of 2020.
Total exports, released by Geostat last week, posted a more modest performance; namely they edged down by 0.2% y/y in June 2021 while they were 6.1% above the performance of June 2019 - still robust enough to inspire confidence.
5.1.2 Current account dynamics
Georgia’s foreign trade in first half up 21.3% y/y
Georgia's foreign trade in the first six months of 2021 increased by over one-fifth year-on-year, Geostat reported on July 13.
Furthermore, it was 0.5% above the pre-coronavirus crisis trade turnover seen in H1 2019.
Compared to the first half of 2019, Georgia’s exports increased and imports decreased, resulting in a slightly smaller trade deficit - which has not improved significantly the country’s dependence on wage remittances and tourism
29 GEORGIA Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com