Georgian Economy Grows by 4.9% in January-May

Georgia’s National Statistics Office has released rapid estimates of the economic growth of January-May 2019, according to which, the estimated real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in May 2019 equaled 4.7 percent and an average estimated real GDP growth equaled 4.9 percent for the first five months of 2019.

Geostat says in May 2019 the estimated real growth compared to the same period of the previous year was posted in the following activities: Real estate, renting and business activities, Trade, Hotels and restaurants. A decrease was registered in Manufacturing and Construction.

May 2019 indicators of price statistics look as follows:
• Consumer Price Index (CPI) – 100.5
• Producer Price Index (PPI) for industrial products - 99.0

As for the indicators of the external merchandise trade statistics in January-May 2019, they look as follows:
• Exports of goods (FOB) - $ 1 466.7 million, 14.2%
• Imports of goods (CIF) - $ 3 492.8 million, -3.6%
• External merchandise trade turnover - $ 4 959.4 million, 1.1%

Indicators of business statistics provided by Geostat look as follows:
• Number of currently registered enterprises (unit) - 4 775
• Change of currently registered enterprises number (y-o-y, %) - 1.8
• Value Added Tax (VAT) payers’ turnover used in rapid estimates of economic growth (mil. GEL) - 6 930.1
• Growth of VAT payers’ turnover used in rapid estimates of economic growth (y-o-y, %) - 13.1

Georgia’s Minister of Economy, Natia Turnava said the provided statistics are quite good when commenting on the devaluation of the national currency Gel against the US Dollar and Euro.

“To date, there is no indication of a macroeconomic factor, which will lead to further devaluation of the currency. So far, economic growth is high. However, we cannot predict if the economic growth will remain the same in the next few months,” she noted.