The term “dollarization”, commonly used among academic economists and finance specialists, has already entered Georgians’ everyday vocabulary. Few people, however, understand what dollarization is, how it comes about and why they should care. Below we try to fill this gap, explaining some basic concepts and discussing why and how dollarization affects ordinary people’s lives.

ISET-PI’s forecasted real GDP growth for the first two quarters of 2019 remain at 4.3% and 4.6%, respectively. Geostat has released its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for February 2019. Their estimated growth stands at 4.6%, while the average real GDP growth for January-February 2019 reached 4.1%.

Geostat recently updated its preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for the first and second quarters of 2018. The Q1 and Q2 GDP growth estimates were revised downward to 5.2% and 5.6%, respectively. The third quarter estimates so far remained unchanged.

ISET-PI’s forecast for the first two quarters of 2018 stands at 4.1% and 5.1%, respectively (no change from last month’s estimations). Geostat has released its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for January and February of 2018. Estimated growth stands at 4.4% and 5.5%, correspondingly. As a result, the average real GDP growth for January-February 2018 reached 4.9%.

Georgia has considerable deposits of metal (for instance, manganese, copper, and gold) and non-metal resources, however, our current regulations do not encourage investment while at the same time failing to generate significant fiscal revenues.