Economic Press Monitor December 15 - 21, 2019	Days:  07 14 21 28 11

economic & politics

FORBES GEORGIA: “KELLY DEGNAN IS APPOINTED THE AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY AND PLENIPOTENTIARY IN GEORGIA”

December 20, 2019 - The US Senate endorsed Kelly Degnan as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Georgia, the magazine reports with reference to information of the Senate.

As the article notes, post of the US ambassador in Georgia was vacant since March 2018, after expiration of term of office of Jan Kelly.




TABULA: ““WALL STREET JOURNAL”: THREAT OF THE US SANCTIONS WOULD FOCUS MINDS OF IVANISHVILI”

December 20, 2019 - Wall Street Journal published editorial, titled “Georgia on the Brink”, Tabula reports. The US edition calls Administration of the President Donald Trump, State Department, to make more effective steps, which will push Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream to keep its promise on transition to completely proportional system of parliamentary elections.




NETGAZETI.GE: “THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT PRESENT KUTSNASHVILI AND OTHER GNCC MEMBERSHIP CANDIDATES TO THE PRESIDENT”

December 18, 2019 - Desire to participate in the competition, announced for one vacant post of member of Georgian National Communication Commission (GNCC), have expressed 5 persons, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

Georgian government said that applications were submitted by Natia Kuprashvili, Beglar Logua, Nino Kubinidze, Zakaria Kutsnashvili and Khatuna Maisashvili.

macroeconomics & budget

FORBES GEORGIA: “NEW METHODOLOGY OF SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS”

December 19, 2019 - On November 15, Sakstat accomplished transition to the new standard of system of national accounts (SNA) and published recalculated data since 2010.

As a result of transition to the new standard, Georgian GDP of 2018 has increased in comparison with the data, calculated by former methodology, by 8.6%, the article specifies.




REZONANSI: ““THIS IS UGLINESS AND FALSENESS!” – BIG PART OF THE NEXT YEAR’S BUDGET IS FILLED WITH DEBTS”

December 18, 2019 - The newspaper indicates that borrowed funds make up 21% of the state budget-2020. In the next year, the government will take domestic debt of 300 million lari and foreign debt of 1.87 billion lari.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF INCREASED COST OF LIVING, MAINTENANCE OF THE GOVERNMENT BECOMES MORE EXPENSIVE TOO”

December 17, 2019 - In spite of talks about necessity of the concept of the small government, being underway in Georgia for years, no effective steps are taken in this direction yet, the newspaper says.

According to the State Audit Service’s project “The Budget Monitor”, compensation of those, occupied in public sector, totaled in 9 months of this year to 1.1 billion lari, exceeding by 53 million lari (by 5%) the showing of the same period of 2018, the article indicates.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “PRE-ELECTION INCREASE OF PENSIONS WILL NOT HELP TO ELDERLY – THE WAY OUT IS IN PENSIONS’ INDEXATION”

December 17, 2019 - Georgia’s Finance Minister Ivane Machavariani said that starting from January 2020, pensions of retired pensioners will increase in the country by 20 lari (up to 220 lari a month), while since July, pensioners at the age of 70 years and above will receive 250 lari and those of them, living in mountain regions – 300 lari.

Machavariani pointed that several rounds of negotiations were held on the subject with the IMF.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “NATIA TURNAVA – IN TWO WEEKS, WE MANAGED TO PRIVATIZE 26 OBJECTS AND ATTRACT OVER 41M LARI”

December 16, 2019 - Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava reported that 26 objects were privatized during 2 weeks, passed since launch of the “100 Investment Offers for Business” project. In these objects, “over 41 million lari are paid in total, whereas initial price made up about 30 million lari”, she specified.

energy, oil & gas

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “OBLIGATION OF ENERGY AUDIT UPON SALE OR RENT OF APARTMENTS WILL ENTER IN FORCE, APPROXIMATELY, SINCE THE END OF 2022”

December 19, 2019 - Energy audit upon sale or rent of apartments is expected to become obligatory in Georgia, the newspaper reports. That is envisaged by the bill “On Energy Efficiency of Buildings”, which consideration the Parliament begins.




FORBES GEORGIA: “PRICE OF THE LIT BULB”

December 16, 2019 - At the news briefing on November 15, Janez Kopac, director of the Secretariat of European Energy Community, subjected the Georgian government to criticism because of violation of terms of fulfillment of undertaken obligations (Georgia joined the Energy Community in 2016).

As Kopac marked out, Georgian Parliament had to approve by December 31, 2018, several key bills within energy reform, but these documents are still at the stage of consideration.

companies

TABULA: ““SAKARTVELOS BANKI” SIGNED 10-YEAR CREDIT AGREEMENT OF $107M”

December 19, 2019 - Sakartvelos Banki (Bank of Georgia) has signed the 10-year credit agreement of $107 million, Tabula reports. As the article notes, the agent of the agreement syndicating is FMO (Dutch development bank).

ecology & health

FORBES GEORGIA: “HEALTHCARE POLICY DOES NOT SERVE PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE AND PREVENTION OF DISEASES”

December 16, 2019 - Data, brought in the article, show that after launch of the state program of universal healthcare, in 2013-2017, number of doctors in Georgia has increased by 22% and reached 27,400.

As the article notes, in terms of doctors’ number per 100,000 inhabitants, Georgia outstrips Poland by 124%, Great Britain – by 84%, Germany – by 26%, etc.

finances & banking

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “BANKING REGULATION BECOME SIMPLER IN PART OF CREDITS’ ISSUANCE”

December 20, 2019 - Supposedly, by March 2020, National Bank of Georgia plans simplification of banking regulation, the newspaper reports. While reporting this, the article refers to the document, which was published upon completion by the IMF of the 5^th review of its program for Georgia.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “RESULTS OF ONE YEAR OF BANKING REGULATIONS”

December 20, 2019 - Paata Bayrakhtari, vice-president of Georgian Young Financiers and Businessmen Association, estimates that “new banking regulations [enacted since 2019] had neither tore down banks, as it was predicted by some experts or representatives of various sectors, nor created problems of any type to economy”.

“If not take into account several online lenders, which operated with illegally high interest rates (annual effective 600-700%), there was no outflow of the companies from the market”, Bayrakhtari points.




REZONANSI: “CREDIT LIMIT OF 200,000 LARI WILL NOT DECREASE, AT LEAST, UNTIL SPRING”

December 19, 2019 - Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia assigned Finance Minister Ivane Machavariani to consider, if there is a possibility of decrease of crediting limit from 200,000 lari, set a year ago, to 100,000 lari (credits of up to this sum have to be issued in national currency only).

The first hint at maintenance of the limit intact the Finance Minister made in several days after that, while now, already president of National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze declares that the final decision in connection with decrease of the limit is not made yet, the newspaper says.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “IN 2019, COMMERCIAL BANKS DID NOT EVICT ANY CITIZEN FROM APARTMENT”

December 17, 2019 - Alexander Dzneladze, president of Georgian Banking Association, assures that banks are really not focused in seizure of borrowers’ property and take great pain in order their clients could pay their credits. At the same time, the banking sector actually does not conduct evictions from apartments, he declares and points that not a single such fact was recorded during 2019.

construction

TABULA: “IN WHICH DISTRICTS OF TBILISI REAL ESTATE IS MOST EXPENSIVE?”

December 18, 2019 - Referring to research of investment bank Galt&Taggart, Tabula reports that similarly to past years, the most expensive real estate in Tbilisi is still in Mtatsminda district, while the cheapest – in Gldani.

According to the research, 50% of apartments, sold in Tbilisi, are located in 4 districts: Gldani, Samgori, Isani, Didi Digomi.




TABULA: “RESULT OF REGULATIONS – NUMBER OF SOLD APARTMENTS DECREASED IN Q3 BY 7%”

December 18, 2019 - “Against the background of lari devaluation, new banking and construction regulations and the worsened expectations, sale of apartments and houses in Tbilisi decreased in the 3^rd quarter of this year”, research of investment bank Galt&Taggart indicates.

According to the research, number of apartments, sold in Tbilisi in the 3^rd quarter, decreased by 6.9%.