According to the most recent statistics, the Georgian economy is showing signs of stabilization in the last quarter of 2015. Economic growth increased to 3% year on year in October – about the same as the estimated average real GDP growth rate (2.8%) for the first ten months of 2015.
ISET-PI’s Leading Economic Indicators forecast still predicts 3.6% growth in the fourth quarter (the forecast remained virtually unchanged since last month’s update), and 2.9% annual GDP growth for 2015.
The Georgian economy is thus showing a degree of resilience to regional economic pressures.
Total consumption of electricity in October decreased by 4.2% year on year. Although negative growth in demand has been observed since the tariff rates were increased in August, the decline seems to have little to do with households’ and small businesses’ demand for energy. While the data does not allow us to separate household and business consumption, we can see how much electricity was purchased by smaller consumers via distribution companies (such as Telasi), and how much was directly purchased by large industrial enterprises.