Georgia searches for solutions to stabilise Lari

The National Bank of Georgia and local businessmen are teaming up to strategize ways to stop the national currency depreciating further against the US Dollar.

From a business perspective, the business community hope Georgia’s currency, the Lari, will become stable as soon as possible, because currently, they found it difficult to plan their business activities.

Representatives of Georgia’s business community attended a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee, where National Bank of Georgia (NBG) president Giorgi Kadagidze and the business sector representatives discussed ways to stop the Lari further depreciating.

The meeting was mostly dedicated to discussing the current economic situation in Georgia and finding the ways to stabilise the Lari.

The business representatives shared the Economy Minister’s expectations that the country would experience more foreign currency inflow this summer and this would help alleviate the current issues and stabilise the Lari.

Meanwhile, at the meeting Kadagidze provided the business society with information on the country’s current economic processes. He also believed growing foreign currency inflow was "the most necessary” action to take to stabilise the Lari, as the reduction of foreign currency inflow was the main reason for the currency’s devaluation late last year.

"It is very important for the business sector and society to calm down about this [issue] and to continue their work peacefully,” Kadagidze said.

The NBG president also talked about the restructuring of loans and said NBG continued working in this direction to help those affected. While this effort would be useful for borrowers, Kadagidze believed this was not a fundamental solution to the problem.

Ensuring Georgia’s currency was brought back to a stable level has been on the agenda in the banking, business, community and governmental sectors in recent months.

In February, NBG met with directors of Georgia’s commercial banks and asked the banks to introduce plans to bring relief for individuals with loans in US dollars and receive their salary in Lari.