Georgian PM on today’s GEL’s rate against USD:”We have all reasons to be optimistic.”

Today the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) made its second intervention in 2016 of $20 million USD at the Foreign Exchange Auction, as the exchange rate of the national currency, the Georgian Lari (GEL) against the USD was set at 2.4694 per one US dollar.

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili commented on the record lowest rate of the Georgian national currency since 1999 in Davos, Switzerland, where he was participating in the World Economic Forum.

This is the correction of the GEL’s exchange rate due the recent devaluation of the national currencies of our neighbouring countries. There is nothing alarming; we have all reasons to be optimistic."

"We expect quite positive economic growth in Georgia this year and we do not have negative expectations in the middle and long time period,” stated the Georgian leader while speaking with local media.

Below is a graphic were you can see a comparison of the national currency rates of three Caucasian countries plus Turkish Lira in the past 30 days. The blue line shows the Georgian Lari, the red line shows the Azerbaijani Manat, the green line represents Turkish Lira, while the orange line illustrates the Armenian Dram.

The comparison graphic was made online using a tool from www.bloomberg.com.

Today's $20 million dollar intervention of the National Bank of Georgia was the second this year. On January 12, NBG sold $20 million USD and the rate of GEL was fixed at 2.4198 against the USD.