Economic Press Monitor July 28 - August 3, 2019	Days:  20 27 03 10 17

economic & politics

TABULA: “HEAD OF CONTRACTOR COMPANY OF “RUSTAVI-2” WAS INTERROGATED UNTIL LATE AT NIGHT”

August 2, 2019 - Tabula reports that Zurab Iashvili, head of Intermedia, contractor company of Rustavi-2 TV company, was interrogated in Georgian Prosecutor’s Office until late at night yesterday.

According to the article, questions to Iashvili concerned financial activity of Intermedia and contracts, which are connected with sale of advertising time of Rustavi-2.




NETGAZETI.GE: “ACCORDING TO GVARAMIA, ZAZA OKUASHVILI IS ALSO GOING TO FINANCE HIS CHANNEL”

August 2, 2019 - Nika Gvaramia, former director general of Rustavi-2 TV company, declares that money for financing of new channel, created by him, “goes from many parties, I work on fundraising”.

Gvaramia confirms that he spoke with Zaza Okuashvili, founder of Iberia Business Group, who “is going to take part in it”.




TABULA: “MACHAVARIANI: WE CAN SAY WITH CONFIDENCE THAT LARI WILL GO DOWN IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS”

August 1, 2019 - “We can say with confidence that lari will go down and this will happen in the next few days”, Georgia’s Finance Minister Ivane Machavariani assures.

As the Minister points, “today, lari is depreciated against [currencies] of the trade partner countries by 10%, and this trend will surely change”.




TABULA: “SCHEME, COLLUSION, NEPOTISM – HOW IS HELD A COMPETITION OF JUDGES, TO BE APPOINTED TERMLESSLY”

August 1, 2019 - In Georgian Supreme Court, 20 new judges have to be appointed termlessly. Interviews with candidates started on July 17, in total, 50 candidates have to be interviewed, being shortlisted from 137 candidates.




FORBES GEORGIA: “AMENDMENTS TO TAX CODE – WHAT DOES STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL COMPANY ENVISAGE”

August 1, 2019 - Essential part of issues, envisaged by Georgian customs law, will be regulated by the Customs Code, which main part will enter in force in 2020. However, a number of issues still remain in sphere of regulation of the Tax Code, the magazine notes.




NETGAZETI.GE: “THE “CONSORTIUM” FAILS TO ATTRACT FINANCING, NECESSARY FOR ANAKLIA PORT – THE MINISTRY”

July 31, 2019 - Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure insists that Anaklia Development Consortium fails at this stage to raise funds for implementation of the first phase of construction of deep-water port in Anaklia.

Date of start of the port construction, which was defined initially as December 31, 2017, is postponed already for the second time, currently until end of 2019, the Ministry specifies and notes that as a result, completion of the port construction will be postponed from 2020 to June 2022.




KVIRIS PALITRA: “ECONOMICALLY, THE COUNTRY GOES NOWHERE”

July 29, 2019 - Founder of Coca-Cola Bottlers Georgia Temur Chkonia considers that Georgian national currency and its exchange rate represent “today’s economic image of the country”. Lari exchange rate is in “catastrophic condition”, he specifies.

macroeconomics & budget

FORBES GEORGIA: “HOW CHANGED “PURCHASING POWER” OF YOUR SALARY FOR THE LAST YEAR”

August 2, 2019 - Referring to Sakstat, the magazine reports that average monthly salary of employees in Georgia makes up 1,092 lari, while average expense per family – 1,141 lari.

The article notes that biggest share in expenses hold food and drinks, which rose in price by 7.9% year-on-year.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “THE GOVERNMENT TURNS TO NEW METHODOLOGY OF PENSIONS’ GROWTH – SINCE 2021, PENSIONS’ GROWTH WILL BE SUBJECTED TO INDEXATION”

August 2, 2019 - Georgian government announced that since 2021, growth of pensions will be carried out by indexation method, the newspaper reports.

Deputy Finance Minister Nikoloz Gagua says that exact rate of indexation is under development at this stage.




TABULA: “NATIONAL BANK PRESIDENT ON LARI DEVALUATION: THIS IS VERY PAINFUL PROCESS”

July 31, 2019 - “Today, Georgia passes through external shock”, president of National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze declares, while commenting on devaluation of lari. “In Georgia, expected tourists’ inflow decreased”, and “certainly, this impacts exchange rate”, he explains.




FORBES GEORGIA: “SINCE START OF THE YEAR, 294 COMPANIES WERE PUT ON “BLACK LIST””

July 31, 2019 - The magazine reports that since start of the current year, Georgian State Procurements Agency put on “black list” 294 companies. In total, 475 companies were put on the “black list” of the Agency during a year.




TABULA: “PLAN OF MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENTS’ DEVELOPMENT IS ADOPTED, 700M LARI WILL BE SPENT FOR THE PROGRAM”

July 29, 2019 - The government resolution, issued on July 18, sets estimated budget of the mountain settlements’ development program as 700 million lari, Tabula reports.

As the article notes, the plan provides creation of local tourism, road and social infrastructure.

energy, oil & gas

FORBES GEORGIA: “HOW MUCH FUEL COSTS IN EUROPE, IN GEORGIA AND IN NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES”

August 1, 2019 - In Georgia, average price of 1 l of petrol makes up 2.40 lari (0.74 EUR).

According to Globalpetrolprices.Com, the highest price for the last 3 months was recorded in the 1^st week of June – 2.45 lari.




REZONANSI: “DIGITAL CURRENCY ENTERPRISES ABSORBED THIS YEAR ABNORMALLY HUGE VOLUME OF ELECTRIC POWER”

July 31, 2019 - Cryptocurrency miner BFDC (data-center of Bitfury, located in Tbilisi free zone) consumed in 6 months of this year electric power of 216.4 million kWh that by 238% exceeds the volume for the same period of last year, the newspaper reports.

Another large cryptocurrency miner, GeoServers (data-center of the same Bitfury, located in Gori) consumed for the first half of the year only 12,000 kWh, while for the last year – 107.9 million kWh.

companies

TABULA: “TSU: TERM OF AGREEMENT WITH “TBC” EXPIRED, “SAKARTVELOS BANKI” WON OVER “TBC””

July 30, 2019 - Terms of contract on salaries’ service between Tbilisi State University (TSU) and TBC Bank expired, and we held negotiations with banks anew, representative of PR service of TSU Nata Asatiani wrote in Facebook. As a result, Sakartvelos Banki (Bank of Georgia) offered better terms than TBC Bank, she notes.




NETGAZETI.GE: ““TEGETA MOTORS”, WITH ASSISTANCE OF “TBC”, OPENED REGIONAL CENTER IN AJARA”

July 29, 2019 - Tegeta Motors opened in Batumi new regional center of car service, having area of 40,183 square m, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

As the article indicates, the company invested 200 million lari in the project and employed there up to 200 locals.

transport & communications

REZONANSI: “WHY CONSTRUCTION OF ANAKLIA PORT DOES NOT SUIT RUSSIA”

July 29, 2019 - Korneli Kakachia, director of Georgian Institute of Politics, points that “for Georgia, which has no deep-water port, Anaklia will be one of the major projects and it will have both economic and political loading”.

“Another big economic hub will be created and when you have a port of such loading, from the point of view of freight transfer capacity, political interest always appears”, Kakachia specifies.

finances & banking

FORBES GEORGIA: “FUTURE OF MICROFINANCIAL SECTOR”

July 30, 2019 - In the first half of the year, losses of Georgian microfinancial organizations exceeded 50 million lari, the magazine reports. At that, their number for the last 12 months has reduced from 73 to 61, while number of employees – by 14%.

construction

TABULA: “UNEMPLOYED AND REDUCED CONSTRUCTION SECTOR – RESULT OF GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION”

July 30, 2019 - As a result of banking and construction regulations, enacted in Georgia this year, tendency of annual growth of construction sector was broken for the first time within the last 3 years, the article says. In 2014-2017, construction sector increased by cumulative 57%.

tourism

FORBES GEORGIA: “IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR, GEORGIA GAINED INCOME OF $1.4B FROM TOURISM”

July 30, 2019 - In the first half of the year, Georgia received income of $1.4 billion from tourism, the magazine reports.

Galt&Taggart investment company forecasts that income this year will grow by 6.9% and will make up $3.4 billion.