Economic Press Monitor November 10 - 16, 2019	Days:  02 09 16 23 30

economic & politics

REZONANSI: “ECONOMICS AND LARI EXCHANGE RATE FACE THE NEXT BIG BLOW”

November 15, 2019 - The state has faced danger of instability again – after June 20 (protest action after the Russian deputy Sergey Gavrilov appeared in a chair of Georgian Parliament’s speaker), the situation became aggravated on November 14 too (protest action because of ruined pledge of ruling Georgian Dream to hold parliamentary elections in 2020 already by proportional system), the newspaper states.

As the article indicates, official exchange rate as of June 19 made up 2.7664 GEL/USD, while within a week after the events of June 20-21, it reached a mark of 2.98 GEL/USD.




REZONANSI: “CHINESE COMPANY INTENDS TO MANUFACTURE ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN ABKHAZIA”

November 15, 2019 - Referring to Abkhazian press, the newspaper reports that China Unicom (Chinese state-owned telecom operator) intends to manufacture electric vehicles and mobile phones in Abkhazia.

However, the newspaper brings also comment of Georgia’s former state minister for reconciliation and civil equality Paata Zakareishvili, who calls this information “bluff”.




TABULA: ““LELO” DEMANDS CHANGE OF RULE OF BUSINESS OMBUDSMAN’S APPOINTMENT”

November 13, 2019 - Public movement Lelo puts forward an initiative of change of rule of appointment of business ombudsman in the country.

As currently, business ombudsman is chosen and appointed personally by Prime Minister, he is not an autonomous figure, Lelo explains.




REZONANSI: “WHY RUSSIANS, IRANIANS AND ARMENIANS MASSIVELY BUY REAL ESTATE IN GEORGIA”

November 13, 2019 - Referring to the report of Georgian Justice Ministry, the newspaper reports that over 15,000 real estate objects in Georgia were registered to citizens of Russia from 2015 to 2018. Next were citizens of Iran with 5,500 objects, while the third position was occupied by citizens of Armenia.




NETGAZETI.GE: “NAME OF KUTAISI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY IS OFFICIALLY CHANGED”

November 12, 2019 - Kutaisi Technological University will be named Kutaisi International University and will be engaged mainly in scientific research, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

As the article indicates, the university will be financed from the central budget, but will be able also to gain income from students, other organizations, etc.

macroeconomics & budget

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “WHAT EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY MEANS”

November 15, 2019 - Referring to Sakstat, the newspaper reports that 20% of Georgian population (i.e. 740,000 people) live on the breadline.

Pursuing addressed and controlled social policy will allow to reduce poverty twice, considers author of the article (Merab Julakidze, associated professor of econometrics department at Tbilisi State University).




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “REDUCTION OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS STARTS LOOKING MENACING”

November 15, 2019 - The newspaper reports that sum, which entered Georgia as remittances from abroad, exceeded receipts from foreign direct investments (FDI) for the first time in the decade. Namely, foreign remittances in 2018 have exceeded FDI volume by almost $200 million, the article specifies.




TABULA: “MACHAVARIANI: DYNAMICS OF UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCTION IS POSITIVE AND WE HAVE TO ACCELERATE THIS PROCESS”

November 14, 2019 - Georgia’s Finance Minister Ivane Machavariani assures that dynamics of unemployment reduction in the country is positive and the rate is on a historical minimum after 2003.

Though, the Minister admits that methodology of calculation is imperfect, and “a lot of time will be required in order we reach such unemployment rate, which normal, healthy country has to have”.




FORBES GEORGIA: ““S&P”: 8 YEARS FOR ADVANCE BY ONE STEP”

November 14, 2019 - The article reviews sovereign ratings of Georgia. In particular, improvement by S&P of Georgia’s sovereign rating in October by one step to “BB” – the move, which took almost 8 years.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “WHY NBG CANNOT CONSTRAIN INFLATION – PRICE GROWTH REACHED THE YEAR’S MAXIMUM”

November 13, 2019 - The question arises, why National Bank of Georgia (NBG) cannot constrain inflation and why price level grows monthly, the article says.

As author of the article (Paata Bayrakhtari, vice-president of Georgian Young Financiers and Businessmen Association) indicates, main leverage, through which NBG tries to influence on general price level, is increase of refinancing rate.




FORBES GEORGIA: “WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT FROM THE TOUGHENED MONETARY POLICY?”

November 12, 2019 - Monetary policy rate of National Bank of Georgia (NBG) makes up 8.5% now, being at the highest mark for the last 11 years. Reason of the rate increase became inflation, which was caused to some extent by devaluation of lari against the US dollar, the article reminds.

companies

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “GEORGIAN STARTUP “INFLUENCE.GE” WILL RECEIVE FINANCING OF 1,300,000 LARI”

November 12, 2019 - Innovative Georgian startup Influence.Ge will receive financing of 1.3 million lari, the newspaper reports.

The article indicates that corresponding transaction was signed by Global Startup Fund, which is founded in partnership of Silicon Valley Tbilisi and Israeli Silicon Wadi.

transport & communications

FORBES GEORGIA: “FIRST CARGO TRAIN FROM CHINA ARRIVED TO TURKEY BY BAKU-TBILISI-KARS RAILWAY”

November 13, 2019 - Referring to Azerbaijani news agency APA, the magazine reports that first cargo container train from China to Europe has passed by Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and arrived to Turkey.

The article specifies that the train China Railway Express has length of 850 m and is composed of 42 containers.

finances & banking

FORBES GEORGIA: “WITH ASSISTANCE OF “SAKARTVELOS BANKI”, ANNUAL FESTIVAL “DATAFEST TBILISI” IS HELD”

November 14, 2019 - With assistance of BOG Fintech, financial technologies unit of Sakartvelos Banki (Bank of Georgia), annual festival “DataFest Tbilisi 2019” will be held (on November 14-16), the magazine reports. The event is organized in Georgia already for the 3^rd time.

agriculture & food

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “MAMUKA KHAZARADZE – WE GOT STUCK IN MENTALITY OF MATTOCK AND PLOUGH”

November 11, 2019 - Founder of public social movement Lelo Mamuka Khazaradze indicates that “we have deplorable situation in agriculture”. “In recent years, the authorities invested 2 billion lari in agriculture”, but as a result, we got decreased share of agriculture in Georgia’s real GDP – crop area decreased by 30%, livestock population – by 3%, while milk production – by 15%, he specifies.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “DIRECTION OF BIOPRODUCTION IS FORGOTTEN”

November 11, 2019 - Georgia’s strategy of agriculture development for 2021-2027 does not envisage encouragement of bioproduction, the newspaper reports. The article notes that the state forgot about promised program of bioproduction support of 100 million lari.

construction

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “THERE IS STILL IMMOBILITY ON THE REAL ESTATE MARKET”

November 14, 2019 - Realization on Georgia’s real estate falls and, respectively, prices decline too, the newspaper says. That is caused by shortage of potential buyers, as people find more and more difficult to accumulate necessary sum in conditions of crediting restrictions and lari devaluation, the article specifies.




FORBES GEORGIA: ““TBC” CONTINUES COOPERATION WITH COMPANY “ANAGI” IN THE DIRECTION OF DEVELOPMENT”

November 11, 2019 - Mortgage center of Georgia’s largest TBC Bank signed a memorandum with Anagi Development, which envisages simplified procedure of apartments’ purchase in Park Home, new residential complex of the company, by clients of the bank, the magazine reports.

The article specifies that Anagi Development is a new direction of construction company Anagi, which cooperates with the bank since 2011, implementing 11 joint projects for that period.

tourism

TABULA: “PUTIN’S SANCTIONS AND INCREASED TOURISM FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION – WHAT IS GOING ON IN TOURISM SECTOR”

November 12, 2019 - In 2016-2018, Georgia was visited by 3.4 million Russian citizens, however since July of this year (when Russia prohibited direct air communication with Georgia), number of Russian visitors decreases by 12.5% on average, Tabula reports.

In turn, Georgia was visited this year by 441,271 citizens of the EU countries, whose number has increased year-on-year by 25%.