National Bank of Georgia's Monthly Review Highlights Key Economic Trends
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The National Bank of Georgia has released its latest "Monthly Review", which provides a snapshot of the country's economic and financial situation.
The review shows that inflation is currently low, at 1.8% for July, down from 2.2% in June. When excluding volatile items like food, energy, and cigarettes, base inflation is even lower, at 1.1%. Local inflation also saw a slight decrease to 1.9%.
In the banking sector, loans increased by 17.8% year-on-year in June, excluding currency exchange effects. Dollarization of deposits was at 49.1%, and the dollarization of the total credit portfolio dropped slightly to 45.2%.
The foreign trade data for June indicates a 9.6% decrease in goods imports compared to last year, mainly due to a drop in consumer goods imports. However, imports of investment goods saw a modest increase. Exports, on the other hand, grew by 5.8% year-on-year, largely driven by higher exports of consumer and intermediate goods, even though investment goods exports declined.
The report also notes that official international reserves fell by USD 19.0 million from the previous month, totaling USD 4.6 billion.
