Economic Press Monitor January 15 - 21, 2017	Days:  31 14 21 28 04

economic & politics

TABULA: “SAAKASHVILI: THERE, WHERE OLIGARCH IS, QUESTION ABOUT FINANCIAL INTEREST SOUNDS NATURALLY”

January 17, 2017 - “I definitely know that several previous cases of leaving National Movement were connected with finances”, ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili declares. “Ivanishvili [ex-premier, billionaire] spoke on the mentioned himself and no one has denied this afterwards”, he points.




NETGAZETI.GE: “NDI: TOP FIVE ISSUES MOST IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE IS UNCHANGED FROM 2009”

January 16, 2017 - Opinion poll, conducted by National Democratic Institute (NDI) and its partner organization CRRC-Georgia, shows that most important issues for Georgia’s citizens are employment (58%), growing prices and inflation (38%) and poverty (30%).

Like the previous polls, major part of respondents (66%) still considers themselves unemployed, while only the third thinks that their economic condition will be improved in the next 12 months.




KVIRIS PALITRA: “BONUS AND SUPPLEMENTS OF 34-MILLION!”

January 16, 2017 - “Despite that the country faces financial and economic problems (…),practice of enormous bonus and supplements payment from the budget still continues”, the newspaper states.

According to monitoring center Mediator, bonuses and salary supplements, paid in legal entities of public law (LEPL) in 11 months of last year, amounted to 34.6 million lari, including supplements of 18.45 million lari and bonuses of 16.16 million lari.

macroeconomics & budget

REZONANSI: “SIMPLIFIED ONLINE TENDERS MAY BE CANCELED”

January 17, 2017 - Draft, submitted to the Parliament by the government, envisages cancellation of simplified online tenders, the newspaper reports. Respective amendment should be made to the law “On State Procurements”.

energy, oil & gas

TABULA: “KALADZE: RUSSIA WOULD SUPPLY IRANIAN GAS TO ARMENIA, THUS, WE HAVE ACTED PROPERLY”

January 20, 2017 - As Georgia’s Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze states, “Today, Russia can supply gas to Armenia via Iran”. “This would naturally inflicted very big loss on us”, the Minister says and points that this was very important pre-condition of making agreement with Gazprom.




NETGAZETI.GE: “GEORGIA’S SECRET CONTRACT WITH “GAZPROM””

January 18, 2017 - Manana Kochladze, head of non-governmental organization Green Alternative, says that important thing is not what price will be offered by Russian Gazprom, or what price will be offered by Georgia, but how is this price determined.

“The price should be determined in line with EU directive, if we want to fulfill at least demand of European Energy Union”, Kochladze points.




TABULA: “KANDELAKI ON “GAZPROM”: INSTEAD OF HALVED TARIFFS, WE’VE APPEARED WITH HARMFUL DECISION IN HANDS”

January 18, 2017 - In connection with contract, signed with Russian Gazprom, the Parliament minority summons the Energy Minister to the Parliament, the magazine reports.

MP Giorgi Kandelaki, member of the newly created fraction European Georgia, says that “Instead of halved tariffs that Bidzina Ivanishvili [billionaire ex-premier] had promised to Georgian people, we’ve got decision, harmful for Georgia’s sovereignty”.




TABULA: “THE PRESIDENT: SIGNING WITH “GAZPROM” DAMAGED THE COUNTRY’S POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INTERESTS”

January 18, 2017 - Eka Mishveladze, press-speaker of the President, declares that signing of contract with Russian Gazprom “has aggravated energy sector of the country. It damaged political and economic interest of Georgia”.




REZONANSI: “THE BATTLE WITH “GAZPROM” ENDED IN LOSS OF 20 MILLION”

January 17, 2017 - The newspaper estimates that even if Georgia will receive gas transit fee in line with high “Ukrainian tariff” ($4.5 per 100 km) under the contract, signed with Russian Gazprom, the amount, considering length of gas main, will make up $22 million in conditions, when Russian gas price for the country will make up $185 (per 1,000 cubic m).

This means that the received fee will be sufficient to buy only half of the gas that is paid in-kind today, while taking into account the fact that Gazprom supplies gas to Armenia for $150 (so, transit tariff should be less than “Ukrainian” one), Georgia will receive much less for transit, the newspaper points.




KVIRIS PALITRA: “IS “KICKING” WITH “GAZPROM” OVER?”

January 16, 2017 - Terms of Georgia’s agreement with Russian Gazprom have been changed for the first time in 15 years, the newspaper says.

If fee for Russian gas transit to Armenia was paid so far by leaving of 10% of transited gas to Georgia, from now on the country will get payment in cash.

international cooperation

EUGEORGIA.INFO: “IF OTHER CONDITIONS BEING EQUAL, GEORGIA’S ECONOMIC WILL GROW BY AN EXTRA 4.3% THROUGH COOPERATION WITH EU”

January 20, 2017 - Time, passed since signing of agreement on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between Georgia and the EU (September 2014), is insufficient in order to estimate economic results of integration; at least mid-term period is necessary for assessment of produced effect, the article says.

However, short-term affects could be already seen in trade flows and production exchange structure; growth is observed in both import and export, the article notes.

finances & banking

REZONANSI: “THE PARLIAMENT IS WORKING ON SEPARATION OF BANKS’ NON-CORE BUSINESSES”

January 17, 2017 - By end of the year, separation of non-core business in banking sector will be required by law, the newspaper announces.

Member of the Parliament majority Ilia Tsulaia declares that decree of National Bank of Georgia did not secure in fact the separation of non-core assets’ possession, which hampers business development, the article reports.




NETGAZETI.GE: “NUMBER OF LARIZATION PROGRAM’S ELIGIBLE BENEFICIARIES HAS DECREASED – INTERVIEW WITH NBG’S VICE-PRESIDENT”

January 16, 2017 - The government’s one-time project on mortgage loans’ larization will not provide budgetary subsidy to high-income persons, i.e. those with income exceeded 100,000 lari in 2015, or remaining credit balance exceeds $100,000.

Until now, it was known that larization program had applied to 33,000 beneficiaries, while vice president of National Bank of Georgia (NBG) Archil Mestvirishvili declares that their number is 27,000, the newspaper reports.

agriculture & food

THE FINANCIAL: “HOW CAN WE REVITALIZE THE STRUGGLING GEORGIAN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR?”

January 18, 2017 - In the last decade, the economic literature has suggested several potential institutional causes for the stalled structural transformation of the Georgian agricultural sector: incomplete land reform, lack of land registration and underdeveloped markets, worsened by the poor quality of physical infrastructure.

Besides, author of the article (Norberto Pignatti, professor at ISET (International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University)) underlines such factors, as the country-specific demographic trends (and land ownership, in particular) and functioning of the Georgian labor market.

construction

LIBERALI: “GAPS OF THE CITY DEVELOPMENT POLICY”

January 20, 2017 - Within the project “Initiative for a Public Space”, Georgian National Committee of Blue Shield disputes decisions of Tbilisi City Hall’s Architect Service and has filed a suit against project “Panorama Tbilisi” (large-scale construction in historic part of Tbilisi), the magazine says.

Besides, the Committee prepared study “Gaps of the City Development Policy”, which author is lawyer Anano Tsintsabadze.