20
May
2016
According to Geostat’s rapid estimates, real GDP grew by 3.4% in March, while the growth rate for Q1 stood at 2.3% year over year. The estimated first quarter growth was 0.5 percentage points less than ISET-PI’s GDP forecast for the quarter. We have updated our forecast for Q2 based on the new information and lowered it from 5% to 4.2%; at the same time, the Q3 forecast was revised upward to 4.3%.
19
May
2016
On Wednesday, May 18 Hans Timmer, Chief Economist of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) at the World Bank, paid a visit to ISET. He delivered a presentation entitled “Economic Outlook for the South Caucasus”, transmitting the idea that the countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA), including Georgia, are transitioning to a situation – against the backdrop of a weakening global economy and volatility in international financial markets – which is called 'New Normal' and is characterized by the slow trend growth of global trade, low commodity prices, and less abundant availability of international liquidity.
16
May
2016
On May 13, 2016, ISET hosted the head of the IMF in Georgia, Azim Sadikov, who delivered a lecture for participants of ISET’s Finance Course for Professionals. The subject of his lecture was “Macro-economic challenges in Georgia and the strengths and weaknesses of its emerging capital markets”.
09
May
2016
On May 6, ISET hosted Shang-Jin Wei, Chief Economist at the Asian Development Bank. He gave a presentation entitled 'Asian Development Outlook 2016 – Asia’s Potential Growth'.
20
April
2016
According to GeoStat estimates, real GDP grew by 2.6% year over year in February 2016. This growth rate is an improvement over the 0.8% growth observed in the previous months. Still, in order to reach the predicted quarterly 2.9% growth (the ISET-PI forecast for Q1 real growth), the economy would have to have expanded by at least 5.4% in March. While the actual growth for March is likely to be lower than that figure, the increases in the consumer and business confidence indices (CCI, BCI) in the last month can be interpreted as good signs for the economy going forward.
