Most used cars sold at Georgian car markets are not as old as this 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. Photo: Morven.

TBILISI, DFWatch – Used cars has become Georgia’s most important export article, accounting for 21% of all exports in 2011. Second and third are ferroalloys and fertilizers.

The country’s exports rose by 40% in 2011, compared to the previous year.

Georgia ended the year 2011 with an average inflation level of 8.5. In 2010 and 2009 it was 7.1 and 1.7 respectively, according to the National Statistics Office, GeoStat.

The new report shows a significant increase in prices on food and soft drinks (1.5%) at the end of the year; also vegetables, melons, potatoes (9.6%), fish and milk, while prices decreased for sugar, sweets (4.3%) and bread products (0.9%).

For the whole year, the most significant changes are seen in the prices for transportation. They increased by 14.6 percent.

The report also covers information about Georgia’s foreign trade from January to November. This totaled 8 259 million US dollars, which according to the report is 37% more compared to the previous year. 1 936 million US dollars of that amount was export, 40% more than in 2010; 6 323 million USD was import, which is 36% percent more than in 2010.

Georgia’s negative trade balance is 35% more than in 2010 (3 251,4) and totaled 4 386 million US dollars.

The most important trade partners are Turkey, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Georgia’s main export product is passenger cars, which made up 21% of all export in 2011. Second is ferroalloys with 11.8%, and nitrogenous fertilizers with 6.3%.

When it comes to import, petroleum and petroleum products are the number one with 12.8%, passenger cars number two with 7.0%, and petroleum gases and gaseous hydrocarbons had a 3.3% share.