Georgia’s trade balance highly negative

The indicator of Georgia’s macroeconomic situation is the negative balance in its foreign trade. During the Shevardnadze regime imports exceeded exports threefold, and unfortunately the situation has not improved since the Rose Revolution.

Exports have doubled in the last four years, but imports have trebled. Therefore, the trade imbalance has increased. The trade deficit in 2007 was equal to 25 % of the country’s GDP. In 2008 the situation has deteriorated further and during the first 9 months of this year, there were four times as many imports as exports. Of course the August war and the general financial crisis considerably influenced the decline in Georgian exports.