“Export to the European Union increased by 57% in the first six months. This is an all-time record. Export constituted 65% last year. These are the highest numbers in ten years.”
On 26 July 2014, during his speech at an extra plenary session of the Parliament, Irakli Gharibashvili made a statement: “Export to the European Union increased by 57% in the first six months. This is an all-time record. Export constituted 65% last year. These are the highest numbers in ten years.”
FactChecktook interest in this statement and verified its accuracy.
In order to check the credibility of the information, we used the official data provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia according to which export to the European market amounted to USD 295.6 million in the first six months of 2014 which is 41% more than it was in the first half of the previous year.
Statistics, reflecting the export to the European Union in the first six months of 2013 and 2014, are as follows:
The total value of the exported products from Georgia to the European Union was equal to USD 353 million in 2012. This value increased to USD 607.8 million in 2013 which meant a 72% growth of the export to the European Union.
FactChecktook interest in the dynamics of export to the European Union in the last ten years. The dynamics of export to the EU from 2004 to 2013 look like this:
As is clear from the chart, export to the European Union reduced in 2006, 2009 and 2012 while it grew in all other years.
As we already mentioned above, export to the European Union grew by 41% in the first six months of 2014 and not by the 57% as stated by the Prime Minister. Even though the 41% growth is quite impressive, it is not an all-time record as a 54% export growth was observed in the first six months of 2004, 2005 and 2008.
As for the data of 2013, even though the 65% growth as stated by the Prime Minister does not match the National Statistics Office data, Georgia did indeed have a 72% increase in export which was the highest number for the last ten years.
Conclusion
According to the National Statistics Office data, export to the European Union increased by 41% in 2014. This is less than the 57% stated by Irakli Gharibashvili. In addition, this definitely was not an all-time record as Georgia had a significantly bigger export growth in 2004, 2005 and 2008.
As for 2013, export grew by 72% as compared to 2012. Even though the 65% growth as stated by the Prime Minister does not match the National Statistics Office data (72%), the context of the statement is correct since it definitely describes a record growth in export.
We conclude that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement: “Export to the European Union increased by 57% in the first six months. This is an all-time record. Export constituted 65% last year. These are the highest numbers in ten years,” is HALF TRUE.
