Georgia’s external debt at $21.8 billion
A total of 90.7 percent of the gross external debt of Georgia is denominated in foreign currency, the updated figures also show. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Georgia’s gross external debt has reached $21.8 billion as of December 31, 2021, accounting for 116.8 percent of its 2021 annual gross domestic product (GDP), the National bank of Georgia (NBG) announced.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the gross external debt of Georgia increased by $775.7 million. In the public sector, the external debt was $10.7 billion, which is 57 percent of GDP.
Public sector debt was divided as follows:
- General Government debt - $8 billion (42.5% of GDP)
- External liabilities of the NBG - $954.1 million (5.1% of GDP)
- Bonds of public enterprises - $503.0 million (2.7% of GDP)
- Loans of public enterprises - $1.2 billion (6.6% of GDP)
The banking sector’s external debt is estimated at $4.6 billion, or 24.5 percent of GDP. The data also shows intercompany lending equalling $3.5 billion.
A total of 90.7 percent of the gross external debt of Georgia is denominated in foreign currency, the updated figures also show.
The net external debt of Georgia amounts to $13.3 billion, or 71 percent of the annual GDP of 2021, while the net public sector external debt has totalled $6.3 billion, or 33.9 percent of GDP.
The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has decided to increase the refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage points to 11 percent on Wednesday at its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
The total turnover of currency exchange units totalled 6.4 billion GEL ($2.046bln/€1.860bln) in Georgia last year, of which 51.8 percent was in dollars and 14.7 percent in euros, the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) announced on Tuesday.
Commercial banks in Georgia loaned 43.25 billion GEL ($13bln/€12bln) and received deposits of 37.63 billion GEL ($11bln/€10bln) in February 2022, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) announced on Friday.
The estimated real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Georgia increased by 14.6 percent in February 2022 year-on-year, while the average real GDP grew by 16.3 percent in January-February, the latest data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) shows.
The net international investment position (IIP) of Georgia, which measures the difference between external financial assets and liabilities of a country, totalled negative $26.3 billion as of December 31, 2021, the National Bank of Georgia announced on Thursday.
Georgia currently owes $22.1 billion in external debt and the amount is growing, the National Bank of Georgia has said in its latest update of related statistics.