Georgia’s statistics office sums up 2018:
What does last year look like in numbers?

The director of the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) Gogita Todradze summirised 2018 and highlighted Georgia’s main statistical data from the past year earlier today.

Todradze said that in the first 11 months of 2018 Georgia’s economy grew 4.7%. He said that in the reporting period indicators for both exports and imports.

Todradze said that Georgia’s exports increased to a record high in the first 11 months of 2018  by 24%.

Overall, Georgia’s external trade grew by 18.6% in January-November and reached $11.32 billion in January-November 2018, says Geostat.

During this period the value of Georgia’s exports increased by 24% to $3.03 billion, while the value of imports also increased 16.8% to $8.29 billion.

The director of the Geostat Gogita Todradze summirised 2018. Photo: Geostat.

Foreign direct investments were down by 27% during the first nine months of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017.

Last year the largest investor countries were Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The main reasons for the decrease in FDIs is the completed pipeline project, transferring of ownership in some companies from non-resident to resident units and reduction of liabilities to non-resident direct investors”, said Todradze.

The annual unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.1% and came out to 12.8% in 2018.

Also, the average monthly salary in Georgia has increased by 56.4 GEL year-on-year and reached 1,125.5 GEL in the third quarter of 2018.

Female workers earned an average salary of 851.9 GEL per month, while male workers earned 1,360.5 GEL, said Geostat.

Annual inflation rate amounted to 1.5%, which was affected by price changes for the following products: bread, tobacco, electricity bills and fuel.