Georgia’s economy increased by 10.1% in 2022
Geostat revised real GDP growth slightly upwards to 9.7% in 4Q22, from the preliminary estimate of 9.5%. For the whole 2022 year, real GDP growth came in at 10.1%, unchanged from rapid estimate. In 2022, high contributions to growth came from transportation and storage (+28.4% y/y), ICT (+49.9% y/y), electricity supply (+38.9% y/y), construction (+14.8% y/y), trade (+6.1% y/y), manufacturing (+7.8% y/y), art, entertainment and recreation (+17.3% y/y), and hospitality (+16.7% y/y) sectors. Meanwhile, real estate (-4.8% y/y) and healthcare (-5.7% y/y) sectors weighed on growth. In 2022, nominal GDP increased by 19.6% y/y to GEL 71.8bn (US$ 24.6bn). GDP per capita stood at US$ 6,672 in 2022, up from US$ 5,023 in 2021.
Producer price index reduced in Feb-23
Annual PPI for industrial goods reduced by 1.0% in Feb-23, posting decline for the first time since Nov-16, according to Geostat. This decline was driven by price fall in mining (-13.4% y/y), water supply (-6.4% y/y) and electricity (-1.9% y/y) sectors.
Trade deficit reduced by 13.9% y/y in Feb-23
In Feb-23, exports increased by 6.3% y/y to US$ 455.9mn from last year’s high base (+60.3% y/y in Feb-2022). Meanwhile, imports declined by 5.4% y/y to US$ 963.7mn in February, after a 27.3% y/y growth in January.
Consequently, the trade deficit decreased by 13.9% y/y to US$ 507.9mn, after growing by 19.4% y/y in January.
The top 5 exported commodities were cars (+266.4% y/y), copper (-16.3% y/y), ferro-alloys (-69.8% y/y), wine (+0.6% y/y) and spirits (+30.9% y/y) in Feb-23. A 9.3% of exports were directed to the EU (-43.1% y/y), 56.0% to the CIS (+54.8% y/y) and 34.8% to other countries (-16.6% y/y).
The top 5 imports were cars (+46.1% y/y), gases (+58.1% y/y), petroleum (-15.7% y/y), pharmaceuticals (+70.0% y/y) and copper (-74.9% y/y) in Feb-23.
Overall, in 2M23, trade deficit increased by a mere 0.8% y/y to US$ 1.1bn, as exports increased by 20.3% y/y to US$ 914.7mn, while imports were up by 9.0% y/y to US$ 2.0bn.
