Both Russia and Ukraine are among the top five export destinations for Georgia. Ukraine accounted for 9.5 per cent of Georgia's exports in January 2022, while Russia accounted for 12.9 per cent (prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022).

For the Georgian economy, 2021 was a year of gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Geostat rapid estimates, the real GDP expanded by 10.7%, coming within 0.1 percentage points of the ISET-PI forecast from November 2021 and surpassing the NBG and IMF mid-year projections, which ranged between 8% - 8.5% y/y.

Recently, Geostat has released the preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2021, which now stands at 29.9%. The real GDP growth rate reached 9.9% year-on-year in July 2021. Consequently, the estimated real GDP for the first seven months of 2021 amounted to 12.2%.

The COVID-19 outbreak has negatively affected the Georgian economy through a reduction in FDI, exports of goods and services, and remittances. In addition, uncertainties caused by the pandemic and containment measures hit consumption and domestic investment. As a result of this reduction in aggregate demand, combined with increased production costs due to pandemic-related constraints, GDP is expected to contract by 5% in 2020 according to NBG’s latest monetary report.

Geostat has revised its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for the first quarter of 2020. The estimated growth now stands at 2.2%, which is 0.7 percentage points above the average growth rate previously estimated for Q1. The real GDP growth rate contracted by 16.6% and 13.5% year-on-year in April and May 2020, respectively. Consequently, the estimated real GDP for the first five months of 2020 amounted to 5.4%.