Economic Press Monitor May 21 - 27, 2023	Days:  13 20 27 03 10

economic & politics

TABULA: “DEMOCRACY INDICATOR IN GEORGIA HAS DECREASED TO 34% – “FREEDOM HOUSE””

May 25, 2023 - In the report for 2023, the Freedom House said that indicator of democracy in Georgia has decreased to 34%. The country’s score for this indicator has decreased from 3.07 to 3.04.




NETGAZETI.GE: ““HE BECAME DIRECT AMBASSADOR OF RUSSIA” – OPPOSITION ABOUT PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH IN QATAR”

May 25, 2023 - Georgian opposition lambasted the speech of the Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at the economic forum in Qatar.

According to Giorgi Vashadze, leader of Agmashenebeli Strategy, it was “a direct message to the whole world, leave us alone, we want Russia”.




NETGAZETI.GE: “APARTMENTS ON A PROFESSIONAL BASIS, BUT ONLY FOR POLICE OFFICERS – WHY?”

May 24, 2023 - Residential buildings for police officers will be built in Tbilisi, for which up to 125 million lari will be spent from the budget.

Anano Tsintsabadze, social justice program manager at Open Society – Georgia Foundation, does not agree with assigning priority to particular professional groups at the state level.




TABULA: “STATE DEPARTMENT: COMPANIES AT GEORGIAN AIRPORTS MAY BE AT RISK OF SANCTIONS”

May 24, 2023 - “We have been concerned about direct flights between Russia and Georgia resuming”, said Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson. “It could mean that companies in Georgian airports could be at risk for sanctions”, he pointed.




TABULA: “IN 2021, DEFENSE ISSUED INCREMENTS OF UP TO 5,160,000 LARI BY CLASSIFIED ACTS – AUDIT”

May 23, 2023 - Georgian State Audit Service reported that increments of 5.16 million lari, issued by Georgian Defense Ministry in 2021, are not properly grounded. The increments were issued to 233 officers by individual administrative and legal classified acts.




REZONANSI: “DISRUPTED WEDDING AND TALKS OF XENOPHOBIA – ASSESSMENTS OF KVARELI INCIDENT”

May 22, 2023 - After Georgian opposition spread the information that relatives of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were staying at the Kvareli Tba (Kvareli Lake) hotel in Kakheti and were planning to celebrate a wedding, a protest rally took place in Kvareli.

The police blocked the road to the hotel, there was a physical clash between them and the rally participants, and the police detained 16 citizens.




NETGAZETI.GE: “RUSTAVELI IS BLOCKED, A RALLY IS BEING HELD AGAINST FLIGHTS WITH RUSSIA”

May 22, 2023 - A protest rally was held in Tbilisi demanding cancellation of direct flights with Russia. “Russian planes do not land in the EU”, the protesters chanted.

macroeconomics & budget

REZONANSI: “WHAT CAUSED UNEXPECTED DEPRECIATION AND FLUCTUATION OF LARI – WHETHER NATIONAL CURRENCY WILL STRENGTHEN AGAIN?”

May 25, 2023 - The long-term trend of strengthening of Georgian national currency was broken about 3 weeks ago, and now lari exchange rate fluctuates or depreciates daily, the newspaper says.

Nika Shengelia, vice president of the International Researches and Forecasting Center, considers that the Georgian banking system decided again to benefit from exchange rate fluctuations.




FORBES GEORGIA: “IN TERMS OF REMITTANCES PER CAPITA, GEORGIA RANKS 8^TH IN THE WORLD”

May 24, 2023 - Online portal Visual Capitalist placed Georgia the 8^th among 172 countries in terms of foreign remittances, received by 1 person on average during 2022.

According to National Bank of Georgia, $4.4 billion was transferred from abroad to Georgia in 2022, which averaged $1,185 per capita.

energy, oil & gas

REZONANSI: “ELECTRICITY TARIFF MAY GO DOWN – NARMANIA NAMES THE CONDITIONS”

May 25, 2023 - “If the lari rate decreases more, someday we will revise these tariffs”, declared David Narmania, chairman of Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulating Commission.

At the same time, he pointed that “If the Regulating Commission lowers the tariff now, and the exchange rate worsens, electricity tariff at the end of December will have to be raised again”.




REZONANSI: “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME, THE COUNTRY’S ENERGY SYSTEM HAS FIRMLY GAINED ITS FEET AND HAS A POSITIVE BALANCE”

May 23, 2023 - The rainy period is one of the reasons, why Georgia has managed to reduce sharply import of electricity and increase export, the newspaper says. For example, in April, Georgia’s export of electricity increased 2,320 times and amounted to $12.4 million, the article specified.




REZONANSI: “TRANSIT TRUCKS DO NOT FILL EVEN 1 LITER OF FUEL IN GEORGIA”

May 23, 2023 - Transit trucks do not fill diesel tanks in Georgia because of high fuel prices, the newspaper says.

The article indicates that cost of 1 liter of diesel fuel in Russia is equivalent to 0.66 EUR, in Azerbaijan – 0.43 EUR, Armenia – 0.99 EUR, while in Georgia – 1.25 EUR.

companies

FORBES GEORGIA: “THE PROSPECT OF GEORGIAN CARGO AVIATION”

May 24, 2023 - The Georgian airline Gryphon Air Cargo was established in 2022 with an investment of $10 million. At this stage, the airline has acquired from the British World Star Aviation one aircraft, designed for regional cargo transportation.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: ““RED WINGS” GOT PERMISSION TO FLY FROM SOCHI TO TBILISI AND FROM MOSCOW TO KUTAISI”

May 23, 2023 - Georgian Civil Aviation Agency has issued a flight permission to another Russian airline, Red Wings. The airline will operate flights from Sochi to Tbilisi and from Moscow to Kutaisi.




FORBES GEORGIA: “TBILISI CITY HALL CANCELS CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH RUSSIAN “METROVAGONMASH””

May 22, 2023 - Tbilisi City Hall cancels the contract on supply of wagons for Tbilisi subway, signed with the Russian company Metrovagonmash.

Metrovagonmash was declared the winner in the relevant tender in November 2021.