On Thursday, May 21st, ISET hosted the Governor of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), Mr. Giorgi Kadagidze, who delivered a profoundly informative seminar to the ISET community and participants of the ISET Finance Course for Professionals.

Aside from discussing the local currency (GEL) depreciation, the most popular economic issue in Georgia, Mr. Kadagidze covered some important aspects of long-term development challenges of the Georgian economy based on the accumulated experience of the past development of the country. The main topic of the seminar was a general overview of macroeconomic considerations in Georgia and how to finance its development while capital markets are still at an infancy stage.

The discussion about the possible reasons for ongoing currency depreciation and potential consequent policy reactions has always been enlivened inside the ISET community. The openness of the President of NBG to the opinions and arguments raised by the audience made the meeting extremely productive, interactive, and interesting for all parties involved.

Fixing vs. floating exchange rate regime, monetary base influence, the role of foreign currency reserves, current account balance, currency speculations, England, Germany, and Switzerland experiences, best practices of developed financial markets, and policy responses is not a full list of the topics discussed by Mr. Kadagidze.

ISET would like to thank Mr. Kadagidze for finding time in his extremely busy schedule and providing a very interesting presentation and Q&A session to the ISET audience during challenging times for NBG.