Since the outbreaks of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1900s and the global financial turmoil in 2007, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a financial sector based on a set of financial indicators has become increasingly important.

2013 was a challenging period for Georgia. Elections, political and policy instability contributed to the significant slowdown in economic growth. Apart from the internal factors, external factors also contributed to the slowdown. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, world economic growth has decreased from 3.2% to 2.9% and IMF forecasts that the world will catch higher growth rates in the following years.

On January 24, 2013, Robert Tchaidze, Senior Economist with the European Department of the IMF, delivered a presentation titled “Turkey: From Crisis to Recovery, 1999-2005.” The presentation covered the causes of the 2001 crisis, the anti-crisis programs undertaken by the Turkish government in cooperation with the IMF, and the country’s subsequent recovery.

On November 20, 2012, Azim Sadikov, a Senior Economist from the IMF’s Resident Representative Office in Georgia, delivered a presentation of the IMF’s annual report on the “Caucasus and Central Asia [CCA] Regional Economic Outlook” to ISETers. The presentation covered an analysis of current and projected macroeconomic trends on both the global and CCA regional scale.

The project aims to settle the Financial Soundness Indicators compilation based on recommendations of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and use them to analyze business climate and financial sector stability of Georgia. The main objective of the study is to assess the financial sector stability/vulnerability over time and compare with a set of benchmark countries in the context of the overall investment climate situation Georgia and in the region.