''In 2019, the export has increased by 12.4 and reached 3 771.5 million USD compared with 2018. Like the previous months, the growth was high in December 2019 when the export increased by 18.7% annually and reached 390.4 million USD,'' Deputy Economic Minister Ekaterine Mikabadze stated.
Under the preliminary data of Geostat, the trade deficit significantly dropped in 2019 (with 489.0 million USD to 5 291.8 million USD).
In 2019 the trade deficit equaled 41.2% of the external trade, having improved with 5.0 percentage points than in 2018.
As Ekaterine Mikabadze stated, the free trade agreements Georgia has signed with different countries positively influenced the export growth.
According to her, the net export of the Georgian production reached 2 113 million USD in Jan – Nov 2019.
Georgia exported 86.8% of the product to the countries having free trade regime:
CIS – 37%
EU – 32%
Turkey – 8%
China – 8.4%
EFTA – 3%
The 2019 export rate of 3% exceeds the previous year's export indicator.
Deputy Minister Mikabadze said that Georgia gradually exports more products to the EU. In particular, the Georgia-originated product amount was 65% in the export to the EU, while the current rate has improved with 24 percentage points and exceeds 89%.
In Mikabadze's words, the government diversified the export from a structural point of view. The number of exported goods to the EU increased from 540 to 700 in 2018. The exporter companies' number also increased by 43% than it was in 2014 and reached 809.
Bela Gelashvili
News Author