Export issues

According to official statistics Georgia's foreign trade turnover in the first quarter of 2010 increased by several percent to USD 1.358 billion. Exports have increased and imports decreased, so these figures are quite encouraging.

Independent analysts however challenge the data of comparison on the basis of certain details, saying that the first quarter of 2009 was the peak of the economic crisis and both imports and export declined during this period.

Soso Archuadze thinks that such purely statistical successes only have any value as PR exercises. He suggests that the appropriate point of comparison for today is just before the crisis and war of 2008.