The growth forecast for the 1st quarter of 2014 has been revised upward from 0.5% to 2.3%. The growth forecast for the 2nd quarter of 2014 has also revised upward from 1.6% to 4.3%. Meanwhile, Geostat has updated the GDP growth estimate for February 2015, it stands at 4.9%.
The growth forecast for the 1st quarter of 2014 has been revised downward from 3.6% to 0.5%. The growth forecast for the 2nd quarter of 2014 has been targeted at a low 1.6%. Meanwhile, Geostat has updated the GDP growth estimate for January 2015, and similarly to our forecast, it stands at 0.5%.
Currently, farming in Georgia is a “by default activity” – the vast majority of Georgian “farmers” are not really farmers in a professional sense but rather people who try to survive by growing agricultural products. When traveling through Georgia’s countryside, one sees immediately that it is mainly the older generation which has to resort to this default activity.
On Wednesday, April 29th, ISET hosted Mr. Donghyun Park, Asian Development Bank’s Principal Economist at Economics and Research Department. Mr. Park presented recently published ADB's Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2015 Theme Chapter “Financing Asia’s Future Growth”. ADO is the annual flagship report of the Asian Development Bank.
According to Geostat’s rapid estimates, real GDP increased by 4.9% in February. This comes as welcome news after several consecutive months of low and, at times (November 2014), negative growth. ISET’s GDP forecast predicts 0.5% GDP growth in the first quarter of 2015. However, this is likely an underestimation of the true outcome, as the economy has already partially adjusted to the external shocks that were the main drivers of the slowdown.