Tradeflow Study - UNDP Black Sea Trade and Investment Promotion ...

Trade is very significant for most countries in BSEC, in particular Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Moldova and Ukraine, whose trade exceeds one hundred percent of its GDP 4 . The least open
economies are Greece and Russia, where trade accounts for only around half of GDP
(though this is double the relative size of trade for the USA). Although the economies of the
region are open, they are not necessarily self sufficient and with the exception of the Russian
Federation and Ukraine, all register deficits in the balance of trade in goods and services.
Interestingly Greece, Turkey and Ukraine have positive balances for trade in goods, with
transportation and tourism services accounting for the largest surplus for Greece.
Table 2. Indicators of performance of BSEC (2005)
Investment and Gross Fixed Capital Formation
ALB ARM AZE BGR GEO GRE MOL ROM RUS SEM TUR UKR
FDI, net inflows (% of GDP) 6 6 41 8 10 1 3 7 2 4 1 3
FDI, net outflows (% of GDP) 0 0 14 -1 0 0 0 0 2 .. 0 0
GFCF (Billion US$) 2.1 1.5 5* 7.5 1.7 52* 0.6 23.6 159.5 4.5 90.0 15.9
GFCF (% of GDP) 25 30 53* 28 27 26* 20 24 21 17 25 19
GFCF (% growth p.a.) 10 25 16* 23 13 5* 2 5 11 8 10 9
Patents
Patent applications, non-residents n.a. 2* n.a. 5* 10* 27* n.a. 37* 2* 658** 42** 269*
Patent applications, residents n.a. 151** n.a. 263* 248* 487* 297* 937* 23* 381** 465** 4086*
Composition of Growth
Industry, value added (% growth p.a.) 4* 19 13* 7 15 1* 5 4 4 4 9 2
Manufacturing, value added (% growth p.a.) n.a. 7 11* 10 11 3** 4* 4 n.a. n.a. 6 15*
Agriculture, value added (% growth p.a.) 3* 11 5* -9 12 10* 3 4 1 2 6 2
Services, etc., value added (% growth p.a.) 8* 11 9* 7 7 5* 6 4 8 3 7 0
External Sector
Trade (% of GDP) 70 67 121* 138 87 50* 135 84 57 78 61 115*
Trade in services (% of GDP) 30 15 27 29 21 23 30 10* 8 n.a. 12* 21
Exports of goods & services (% growth p.a.) 19.0 16.0 11.0 7.0 5.0 10.0 8.0 4.0 6.0 30.0 9.0 3.0
Imports of goods & services (% growth p.a.) 22 12 23* 15 5 8* 8 4 16 8 12 14
Merchandise trade (% of GDP) 39 55 68 112 53 33 117 69 48 62 52 86
Net trade in goods (Billion US$) -1.8 -0.6 3.3 -5.4 -1.2 -34.3 -1.2 -6,7* 118.3 n.a. -23,9* -1.1
Net trade in services (Billion US$) -0.2 -0.1 -2.0 0.8 0.1 19.4 0.0 -0,2* -14.7 n.a. 12,7* 1.8
Net trade in goods & services (Billion US$) -2.0 -0.6 1.3 -4.6 -1.1 -14.8 -1.2 -6,9* 103.6 n.a. -11,2* 0.7
Note: *: 2004 statistics; **: 2003 statistics; Growth over a five year period
Source: World Bank World Development Indicators database, 2007
4 Trade is defined as the sum of exports and imports of goods and services.
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