Economic Press Monitor March 5 - 11, 2023	Days:  25 04 11 18 25

economic & politics

TABULA: “US: WE URGE THE “DREAM” TO OFFICIALLY RETRACT THESE BILLS AND NOT PURSUE FURTHER THIS TYPE OF LEGISLATION”

March 10, 2023 - “We welcome Georgian Dream’s decision to withdraw both draft laws on “foreign influence”“, says the US embassy in Georgia in a statement, released on March 9.

“We urge the ruling party to officially retract these bills and not pursue further this type of legislation, which is incompatible with Georgian and European values and the protection of fundamental freedoms”, the statement reads.




REZONANSI: “FROM 2024, IMPORT AND SALE OF CARS OVER 10 YEARS OLD WILL BE PROHIBITED IN THE COUNTRY”

March 7, 2023 - The Georgian government plans to introduce the Euro-5 standard, which will result in prohibition of delivery to the country of cars produced in 2012 and earlier.

Alexander Noniadze, head of Georgian Auto Importers Association, says that the new regulation will cause cars to rise in price.




FORBES GEORGIA: “HOW MUCH (WILL) PRICE CONTROL COST?”

March 7, 2023 - Medicines, oil-products and now already food - the government demanded companies to reduce high profits and, due to this, lower prices, the magazine says.

The article examines how the approach, chosen by the Georgian authorities, i.e. price control, will ensure the achievement of this task.

macroeconomics & budget

FORBES GEORGIA: “RANKING OF COUNTRIES BY NUMBER OF DAYS OF PAID VACATION”

March 10, 2023 - Referring to Visual Capitalist, the magazine reports that Georgia has 41 days of paid holidays (public holidays and paid vacation).

In total, there are 42 days of paid holidays in Azerbaijan and Russia.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “NATIONAL BANK PURCHASED $155M IN JANUARY”

March 7, 2023 - National Bank of Georgia (NBG) bought through the Bmatch platform $155.2 million in January, which is the maximum purchase.

NBG increased the volume of currency purchases through Bmatch in the second half of 2022.

energy, oil & gas

REZONANSI: “IN NEAR FUTURE, DIESEL WILL BECOME SIGNIFICANTLY CHEAPER IN GEORGIA”

March 6, 2023 - Vano Mtvralashvili, head of the Global Trade Group, says that cost of diesel fuel on Georgian wholesale market today is “at one of the lowest levels over the past 2 years”.

“In recent months, diesel price has been decreasing irreversibly and at the current stage we can say that this positive trend is continuing quite actively”, Mtvralashvili points.

conflict and court

TABULA: “IN CASE OF VAKE PARK, FORMER HEAD OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION OF THE CITY HALL AND 4 OTHER PERSONS ARE INDICTED”

March 6, 2023 - Georgian Prosecutor’s Office declared that in the case of tragedy occurred in the capital’s Vake Park, former head of the city environmental protection service, specialist of the company Expertise, Construction, Design and 3 legal entities (GreenService+; Expertise, Construction, Design; Constructionexpert) were indicted.

To remind, on October 13, 2022, 3 teenagers (two boys and a girl), who descended for a fallen ball into the fountain of Vake Park, were electrocuted, and the girl died.

companies

FORBES GEORGIA: “EMPLOYMENT ORGANIZER”

March 10, 2023 - Giorgi Kiknadze, head of the Georgian employment agency HR, says that the company is developing in 3 directions: vacancy publication, recruiting and outsourcing.

In 2022, compared to 2021, the company recorded an increase of over 30% both in revenue and in number of applications, Kiknadze points in an interview with the magazine.




FORBES GEORGIA: “TBILISI ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE PLANT IS BROUGHT ON AUCTION FOR 48.8M LARI”

March 9, 2023 - Assets of JSC Elmavalmshenebeli (Electric Locomotive Builder) are brought on electronic auction for 48.8 million lari. The auction (which was started on March 2) expires on March 9.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: ““KEMPINSKI” HOTEL MAY BE BUILT IN GEORGIA”

March 9, 2023 - During his visit to Germany, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with Bernold Schroeder, director general of Kempinski Group.

At the meeting, the parties considered possibilities of starting construction of the Kempinski hotel in Georgia and outlined plans in this direction.




FORBES GEORGIA: ““GALT&TAGGART” – INVESTMENT BANK #1 IN GEORGIA | INTERVIEW WITH OTAR SHARIKADZE AND ZURAB KOKOSADZE”

March 6, 2023 - Otar Sharikadze, managing partner of Galt&Taggart, indicates that 2022 “was a record year” in terms of corporate securities’ emission. We have conducted out 7 public emissions of 6 issuer companies, including 3 new issuers, he says.

finances & banking

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “IN 2022, TURNOVER OF RUBLES IN GEORGIA INCREASED BY 180%”

March 6, 2023 - Referring to research, conducted by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), the newspaper reports that in 2022, Georgian currency exchange offices bought 4.6 billion Russian rubles. In turn, they sold 4.3 billion rubles.

construction

REZONANSI: “COST OF RENT EXCEEDED MORTGAGE FEE – THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE”

March 9, 2023 - Real estate in Georgia became so expensive that, for the first time, cost of rent has exceeded mortgage payments, the newspaper says. This situation is caused by inflow of migrants to Georgia after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.