Economic Press Monitor March 24 - 30, 2024	Days:  16 23 30 06 13

economic & politics

NETGAZETI.GE: “RENTAL OF GOVERNMENTAL AIRCRAFT COST THE GARIBASHVILIS 109 THOUSANDS LARI – DECLARATION”

March 28, 2024 - Rental of the governmental plane to make Tbilisi-Munich-Tbilisi flight in 2023 cost the family of Irakli Garibashvili 109,500 lari, declaration of Georgia’s former prime minister indicates.

As Garibashvili said earlier, the plane on which he took to Munich his adult son Nikoloz, who was going to the US to study at the Pennsylvania University, was rented by his father Tariel Garibashvili.




NETGAZETI.GE: ““HE SYMBOLICALLY HELD OFFICE” – GARIBASHVILI’S FIRST COMMENT ON DAVID KHIDASHELI”

March 25, 2024 - After Irakli Garibashvili left the post of Georgian Prime Minister, and the Defense Minister Juansher Burchuladze resigned him, it became known that businessman David Khidasheli worked as an adviser to the Defense Minister for 4 years (from 2020 to February 9 of this year).

Garibashvili (now chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream) declares that Khidasheli “is very well versed in the delimitation of borders, maps, etc.”.




NETGAZETI.GE: “CONFERENCE OF JUDGES DID NOT SUPPORT INTEGRITY CHECK”

March 25, 2024 - Georgian Supreme Council of Justice reported that most participants of Conference of Judges did not support the initiative to introduction of extraordinary procedure for checking the integrity of judges, the so-called “vetting”. The 32^nd Conference of Georgian Judges was held on March 24.

macroeconomics & budget

NETGAZETI.GE: “NBG RESPONDED TO GOTSIRIDZE’S CRITICISM IN CONNECTION WITH LARI RATE”

March 27, 2024 - Roman Gotsiridze, the opposition member of Georgian Parliament (Eurooptimists) and president of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) in 2005-2007, claims that statistics on buying/selling of foreign currency in February show that Georgian national currency lari was strengthening, and NBG did not allow this.

Gotsiridze wrote about this on social media, and David Utiashvili, head of the financial stability department at NBG, answered him in the comment to this post.




FORBES GEORGIA: “GEORGIA RANKS 45^TH IN THE WORLD IN TERMS OF DEPENDENCE ON EXPORTS”

March 27, 2024 - Referring to the World Bank, the magazine reports that in 2022, Georgia ranked 45^th among 166 countries in terms of dependence on exports of goods and services, which amounted to $13.2 billion, or 52.9% of the country’s GDP. In 2021, Georgia ranked 59^th, while exports made up 43.2% of GDP.




REZONANSI: “NATIONAL BANK RETURNS TO BUYING DOLLARS AND PUSHES LARI TO DEVALUATION”

March 26, 2024 - For 2 weeks, passed since National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has sharply softened monetary policy, lari is depreciating, the newspaper notes.

At that, information about NBG interventions on BMatch platform has been closed for a rather long period (it is disclosed with a lag).




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “REMUNERATION IN STATE DEPARTMENTS EXCEEDED 2B IN 2023”

March 25, 2024 - Referring to Budget Monitor (web platform of the Georgian State Audit Service), the newspaper reports that in 2023, total payroll in the state departments of Georgia amounted to 2.23 billion lari. This is the highest showing since 2014, the article points.

conflict and court

NETGAZETI.GE: ““FRAUDULENTLY CONVINCED TO TRANSFER 128,000 EUR FROM THE NETHERLANDS” – 7 PEOPLE INDICTED”

March 27, 2024 - Another transnational crime has been detected, Georgian prosecutor’s office declared.

On charges of fraud, committed by an organized group, criminal proceedings were instituted against 5 foreigners and 2 Georgians.

companies

BATUMELEBI: “GOVERNMENT EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR PRESENTATION OF $3M BANK GUARANTEE BY “AMBASSADORI” FOR 18 MONTHS”

March 29, 2024 - The Georgian government extended for 18 months the deadline for presentation of a bank guarantee by LLC Ambassadori Batumi Island. The company is building an artificial island and peninsula in the Batumi sea area.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: ““WIZZ AIR” RAISED PRICE OF TICKETS IN DIRECTION OF GERMANY TO RECORD HIGH LEVEL”

March 29, 2024 - On June 18, Georgian national football team will play its first match at the European Championship in Dortmund (Germany) against the Turkish national team.

As a result, prices of Wizz Air tickets in direction of Germany between June 10 and 17 almost tripled.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “COMPETITION AGENCY FINED “GEORGIAN BEER COMPANY” – REASON”

March 28, 2024 - Georgian Competition and Consumer Protection Agency imposed a fine on Georgian Beer Company. The reason is the company did not inform the Agency on concentration.

transport & communications

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “GEORGIA’S RAILWAY – MODERNIZATION PROJECT, PECULIARITY OF TRACK INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMPATIBILITY WITH THE MIDDLE CORRIDOR MEMBER COUNTRIES”

March 29, 2024 - The project of the Georgian railway system’s modernization on the Tbilisi-Makhinjauri section was started in 2011. At this stage, the deadline for completion is set for this autumn.




BATUMELEBI: “WHY BATUMI PORT CAN NO LONGER WORK WITH FULL LOAD – DEAD END IN THE “MIDDLE CORRIDOR””

March 26, 2024 - In 2023, Georgian port of Batumi handled 109,000 containers. “However, the Batumi port can handle 200,000 containers”, says Paata Tsagareishvili, director of the Transport Corridor Research Center.

ecology & health

REZONANSI: “NURSES ARE SO FEW THAT SOME CLINICS MAY NOT EVEN BE ABLE TO PERFORM SURGERY”

March 28, 2024 - Because of low salaries in Georgia, nurses depart from the country to work abroad, the newspaper says.

In 2020, there were 22,126 nurses in Georgia, in 2023 – 22,029.

agriculture & food

FORBES GEORGIA: “GEORGIA AND THE REGION: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY”

March 26, 2024 - Among the countries of the region, Georgia stands out for low productivity in agriculture, the magazine points.

After Georgia, neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan have similarly low rates.