TBILISI, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Georgia's foreign trade turnover increased 13.8 percent in 2017, totaling 10.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to a release by the state statistics office on Monday.
The total value of exports increased 29.1 percent to 2.72 billion dollars and imports were up 9.4 percent to 7.97 billion dollars in the year, with the trade deficit at 5.25 billion dollars.
Neighboring Turkey remains Georgia's top trading partner with bilateral trade worth 1.58 billion dollars, followed by Russia and China with 1.18 billion dollars and 939 million dollars, respectively.
The top export items were copper ores and concentrates, followed by ferroalloys; meanwhile crude oil and oil products remain on top of Georgia's list of imports.
Analysts attributed the rapid growth of foreign trade to the improving national economy, which exceeded previous forecasts by growing 4.8 percent in the year.
They predict that Georgia will see continuous growth in foreign trade this year, due to a free trade agreement with China that took effect on Jan 1.
