Georgia’s economic growth on good track in 2017

Georgia’s economy is growing steadily and the country is experiencing positive economic dynamics thanks to the increase in exports, hosting more tourists and receiving a larger amount of remittances.

The estimated real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in February 2017 amounted to 4.4 percent year-over-year (y/y), while the estimated real GDP average growth equalled 4.8 percent for January-February 2017 y/y, show the official figures released by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said today that this was "a good indicator” and the year 2017 started with "good trends”.

The real economic growth in January was 5.2 percent and 4.4 percent - in February… Exports have significantly increased, as well as the number of tourists and the amount of remittances. All this is mostly a result of the positive economic dynamics in our region, and I hope that this year we will have very good indicators,” said Kvirikashvili.

All this also clearly shows that the four-point plan works well and this year's planned budget is absolutely realistic. We have successfully concluded negotiations with the Monetary Fund, and today we have a green light from the international financial institutions in terms of allocation of finances, which indicates that our plans are absolutely realistic and we will implement them step by step,” he added.

At today's Government Meeting the Georgian authorities talked about the economic developments of the country. Photo by Georgia's Finance Ministry.

Georgia’s Finance Ministry published information about which fields contributed the most in the country’s economic growth. These fields were:

• Manufacturing – 9 percent growth
• Construction – 12.5 percent growth
• Transport – 8.7 percent growth
• Trade – 6.1 percent growth
• Export of ferroalloys – 430 percent growth
• Export of goods – 27 percent growth
• Tourism revenue – 20.4 percent growth
• Wine export – 61.4 percent growth
• Export of medical products – 88 percent growth
• Export of mineral waters – 27.5 percent growth
• Spirits export – 35 percent growth

Various international financial institutions also have positive expectations about Georgia’s economic growth.

The World Bank Group projects Georgia’s economic growth will hit 4.5 percent in 2017 and five percent in 2018.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects four percent growth for Georgia’s economy in 2017.

Global rating agency Fitch Ratings forecasts 4.2 percent growth in 2017 for Georgia.

As for government authorities, Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili had earlier stated the goal was to achieve six percent in 2017.

In his interview with Bloomberg, Georgia’s Finance Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said economic growth may exceed five percent in 2017 thanks to tax cuts and planned infrastructure spending.