Car exports accounted for 12.2% of the total country’s exports and 6.6% of total imports in 2018.
Car re-exports stood at US$ 408.9mn and car imports reached US$ 598.2mn, up 74.1% y/y and 25.4% y/y, respectively in 2018.
According to G&T, Auto business turnover posted impressive growth of 14.8% CAGR over 2010-18, reaching GEL 2.6bn in 2018. The three major sub-sectors that comprise the auto industry are: (i) sale of automobiles; (ii) automobile parts; and (iii) automobile servicing and repair. Sale of automobiles is the largest sub-sector by turnover accounting for 64.7% of the total in 2018, followed by auto parts (31.9%) and auto servicing (3.4%).
Georgia imports cars from various countries and re-exports them to neighboring markets. This in turn led to the development of a strong domestic auto parts and auto servicing sector as the vehicles that are imported are mostly used, then repaired and sold on in the domestic and external markets. Car imports generated more than GEL 123mn in excise tax revenues in 2018 while car re-exports – Georgia’s second-largest export category – stood at US$ 408.3mn.
