ISET-PI has updated its forecast of Georgia’s real GDP growth rate for the second and third quarters of 2017. Here are the highlights of this month’s release:
• Geostat has released its GDP growth estimate for the first quarter of 2017. The Q1 growth rate now stands at 5.1%, which is 1.6% above ISET-PI’s last forecasted value. Moreover, the average growth rate for the first five months of the year amounted to 4.5%.
• ISET-PI’s forecast of the real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2017 stands at 5.8% - up from 4.4%. The first estimate of the third-quarter growth forecast is at 6.9%.
• We started forecasting the annual growth rate at the start of 2014 (see our January 2014 and February 2014 publications for a note on methodology). Based on January’s data, we expect the annual growth in 2017 to be 6.2% in the worst-case or “no growth” scenario, and 6.6% in the best-case or “average long-term growth” scenario.