In the past year, in response to rising levels of private debt, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) enacted new regulations to curb excessive indebtedness. The impacts of the implemented regulations are as yet unclear but generally the reaction in the private sector has been negative. In this newsletter, a brief overview of the possible implications of these lending regulations are presented.

The aim of this newsletter is to briefly examine the roots of the gender pay gap in Georgia, to reveal the differences of average wage in various sectors, distributions of labour force according to gender and hourly wages for males and females. Due to data limitations, only the wages of hired employees are considered.

The first quarter of 2019 produced some interesting figures in Georgia’s external trade. In this period, external trade was recorded with a total of 121 countries. The data analysis shows that in the first quarter of 2019, compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, Georgia’s export has increased while the country’s import decreased. The analysis of Georgian trade based on import origin and export destination countries reveals that the volume of export has increased the most to Russia while the biggest decrease in imports was recorded with France.

Analysis of FDI into Georgia for 2014-2018 revealed the following general findings: In 2018, the financial, transport and communications, and energy sectors attracted the most FDI; In 2018, Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands were the countries investing most in Georgia; Based on the cumulative amounts of FDI for the past five years, transport and communications (28.4%) is the most attractive sector for FDI in Georgia, while the agricultural sector is the least attractive (0.8%); Based on the cumulative amounts, countries investing most in Georgia are: Azerbaijan, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Turkey and USA. The shares of FDI from China and the EU in the total FDI into Georgia have been increasing since 2017; During 2017-2018, the share of reinvestments in the total FDI into Georgia increased, while the shares of equity and debt instruments decreased.

Human capital development is increasingly seen as the biggest driver of economic growth and the most powerful tool in the fight against poverty (World Bank, 2018). This idea is embodied in the World Bank’s new…

Increasing the employment rate represents one of the most significant challenges and priorities of the Georgian economy. This bulletin appraises trends related to employment for the period of 2014-2017.  

Georgia was ranked 66th among 140 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index1 in 2018. During 2010-2018 Georgia’s position in the ranking was improving, except one year. In 2018, compared to 2017, Georgia’s position in the ranking improved by 1 place. Among the so-called pillars measured to calculate the Global Competitiveness Index in 2018, Georgia scored best in terms of its labor market (31st place) while it was least competitive in terms of market size (102th place). Among the Central Asia and South Caucasus countries2 in 2018, Kazakhstan was the top performer in this Global Competetiveness Index (59th place), while Tajikistan held the lowest position in the index (102nd place).

Analysis of the preliminary data on FDI for the first half of 2018 revealed the following general findings: The financial, energy, and construction sectors attracted the most FDI; Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands were the largest investing countries for Georgia; Based on the cumulative values of the past 4.5 years, transports and communications is the most attractive sector for FDI in Georgia; The shares of FDI from China and the EU in the total FDI in Georgia were their highest since 2014; Based on a semi-annual analysis, reinvestments surpassed equity for the first time in th e available data of 2013-2018.

The first half of 2018 produced some interesting figures regarding Georgia’s external trade. Even though the existing data is only preliminary, the analysis thereof unveils some curious results. Georgia’s exports and imports reached their highest point for the observed period of 2015-2018. In the first half of 2018, Georgia was recorded to have conduced external trade with 133 countries, a record-breaking amount in the observed period. With free trade agreements already in place with China and the EU, we have been able to conduct a rough analysis of the effects of the two agreements so far. To analyze these effects, the observed period is taken from January 2015 to June 2018.

For the period of 2014 to 2017, in every first quarter of each year compared to the first quarter of the previous year, the nominal exchange rate of the Georgian Lari (GEL) against the US Dollar (USD) depreciated. This trend stopped this year though as in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the first quarter of 2017, the GEL appreciated by 4.5% and the value of 1 USD was equal to 2.49 GEL (average exchange rate in the first quarter of 2018).