31
January
2020
High and rising levels of foreign currency indebtedness have been an important topic in Georgia over the past several years. To address this issue and protect borrowers from currency risks, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), as well as the Georgian Government have implemented regulations to hinder excess indebtedness. Let’s have a look at the timeline (Figure 1) of recent lending regulations and the accompanying monetary policy measures and observe their impact on changing lending patterns in the Georgian economy.
23
October
2019
The biennial Tbilisi Silk Road Forum was held from October 22-23, an event of the utmost importance for Georgia’s economic development. With over 2,000 people in attendance, the Forum gathered together policymakers, businesses, community leaders, and academics to discuss trade and connectivity, as well as examine the challenges facing countries along the New Silk Road.
10
July
2019
People face complicated financial decisions starting from a young age. Financial mistakes made early in life can be costly. Thus, Financial literacy could play an important role in sound financial decision-making. Financial illiteracy has implications for many household behaviors. People with the lack of financial literacy participate less in the stock market (van Rooij et al. 2011), choose mutual funds with higher fees (Hastings and Tejeda- Ashton, 2008), and accumulate less retirement wealth (Behrman et al. 2010).
01
July
2019
The average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian Khachapuri stood at 3.24 GEL in May 2019. This is 6.4% lower MoM (compared to April 2019), and 2.4% higher YoY (compared to May 2018).
28
June
2019
The latest impact of Gavrilov’s visit to Georgia has fueled societal concerns about the economic consequences of deterioration in Russo-Georgian relations. For instance, due to the Russian government’s decision to cancel flights to Georgia, residents are beginning to worry about potentially adverse economic impacts on the tourism sector. ISET-PI has already discussed the expected impact of such a change, highlighting how these concerns might be unwarranted, as tourism accounts for 7.6% of the GDP, with Russian tourism contributing only 1.8% to the economy.
