Economic Press Monitor November 25 - December 1, 2018	Days:  17 24 01 08 15

economic & politics

TABULA: “OSCE: PAYMENT OF DEBT FOR 600,000 CITIZENS CAN BE EQUATED TO BUYING UP OF VOTES”

November 30, 2018 - In their joint report, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) indicate that on recent presidential elections in Georgia, candidate, backed by ruling Georgian Dream, enjoyed “the ground-less advantage”.

Mission of international observers speaks about use of administrative resource and points at Georgian government’s declarations in pre-election period about launch of social program and write-off of debts of the population, Tabula reports.




REZONANSI: “NON-FULFILLMENT OF ELECTION PLEDGES WILL STRIKE A STRONG BLOW TO AUTHORITY”

November 29, 2018 - Issue of election pledges of ruling Georgian Dream are commented in the article by expert in social problems Paata Aroshidze and founder of New Economic School – Georgia Paata Sheshelidze.

Aroshidze expects that election pledges will be fulfilled and indicates that representatives of ruling team were “more moderate in promises, than it was at the previous presidential elections”.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “KVEMO KARTLI REGION HAS HIGH POTENTIAL OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT THAT IS ONE OF PRIORITIES FOR US”

November 27, 2018 - Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Georgy Kobulia points that Kvemo Kartli “traditionally is one of industrial regions of Georgia” and has high potential. Concerning this region, “we have quite interesting plans”, he notes.




TABULA: “SURVEY OF “EDISON RESEARCH” – WEIGHED RESULTS: VASHADZE – 52%, ZURABISHVILI – 48%”

November 26, 2018 - According to survey of Edison Research, 37% of respondents is going to vote for candidacy of united opposition Grigol Vashadze (the second round of Presidential election in Georgia will take place on November 28), while 35% – for Salome Zurabishvili, supported by ruling Georgian Dream.

Edison Research conducted the survey, requested by Rustavi-2 broadcasting

company, on November 12-18 among 2,038 citizens.

macroeconomics & budget

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “WHAT SUM IS ENVISAGED BY THE BUDGET OF 2019 FOR PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION”

November 30, 2018 - The draft of the state budget-2019 allocates for the President’s Administration 9.8 million lari, the same sum as in 2018, the newspaper reports.

As the article notes, staff of the Administration will total to 140 people, while their gross payroll – to 4.69 million lari.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “INFLATION, LARI EXCHANGE RATE, INTERVENTIONS – POSITION OF NBG ON THREE IMPORTANT ISSUES”

November 29, 2018 - The newspaper addressed the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) with questions and offers readers the answers.

NBG declares that it does not interfere in formation of exchange rate and has no target mark of exchange rate.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “THE GOVERNMENT PLANS PRIVATIZATION OF “GEORGIAN POST” AND RAILWAY”

November 27, 2018 - Referring to Bloomberg, the newspaper reports that Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Kobulia reported about plan of the government to privatize Georgian Post and Georgian Railway.

The Minister pointed that privatization of Georgian State Electrosystem is also planned, which was suspended as far back as 2011 because of the market “challenges”.




REZONANSI: “THE GOVERNMENT EVEN DID NOT LEARN SPENDING OF MONEY – 2.5B HAS TO BE SPENT IN A MONTH”

November 27, 2018 - One month remained until end of the year and the sum, which the state budget has to spent, makes up 2.5 billion lari, while monthly spending during the past 10 months makes up 910 million lari, the newspaper writes.

During the remained period, the government has to spend daily over 100 million lari, which will be heavy blow for national currency, the article specifies.

energy, oil & gas

REZONANSI: “AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT OF ELECTIONS RESULTS, RISE OF MUNICIPAL TARIFFS WILL BEGIN”

November 29, 2018 - After the 2^nd round of presidential elections in Georgia, work will start on growth of municipal bills, the newspaper points. The reason is named the exchange rate of 2.7 GEL/USD, in which assumption the state budget was planned.




FORBES GEORGIA: “HOW FUEL PRICE CHANGED IN GEORGIA AND THE WORLD FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS”

November 26, 2018 - Referring to Globalpetrolprices.Com, the magazine reports that petrol price in Georgia, $0.97 (2.57 lari), is below the average and by this indicator, the country occupies the 52^nd place in the world. At that, the country is in the 11^th place in the world according to cost of liquefied gas – $0.56.

transport & communications

FORBES GEORGIA: “WHO ROSE AND FELL – TOP COMPANIES OF GEORGIAN AVIATION MARKET”

November 30, 2018 - If in 2015, there were 33 companies, operating in Georgian aviaspace, their number has increased this year to 57, the magazine reports.

If 3 years ago, 2.2 million passengers were transported by means of regular flights, then this number had increased up to 3.9 million in 2017, while makes up already 3.8 million for just 9 months of 2018.

ecology & health

REZONANSI: “MOST CLINICS HAS A SECOND-HAND OR WRITTEN-OFF EQUIPMENT”

November 27, 2018 - The population trusts local medical researches less and less and turns for help to foreign clinics, the newspaper states.

The article points that because of relatively low cost of service, patients apply mostly to clinics in Turkey and Germany, while as a last resort – to ones in Israel and the US, where treatment is connected with much bigger sums.

finances & banking

KVIRIS PALITRA: “WHO WILL AVOID THE DEBT HOLE?”

November 26, 2018 - While commenting on the government’s initiative on zeroing of overdue debts of citizens, economist Soso Archvadze notes that this will benefit not only to 600,000 citizens, having similar debts, but also to credit institutions, which will improve their balance sheet and will gain additional cash.

Archvadze considers only that holding such actions several days before elections necessarily casts a shadow on the content of this measure.