Strong downturn in Georgian economy continues – new data for January

Georgia’s economy shrank 11.5 percent in January 2021 compared to the same period last year, new data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia show.

The biggest drop was observed in the following areas:

• construction
• transport and logistics
• processing industry
• property rentals
• art
• entertainment and recreation
• real estate transactions
• electric power industry
• gas supply
• wholesale and retail trade
• repair of cars and motorcycles

There were fewer newly registered enterprises in January 21 as well – down 23.3% y/y.

Growth was only observed in information and communication, finance and insurance.

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Experts are already calling the economic downturn over the past year historic. Since 1994, Georgia’s economy contracted the most in 2020 – by 6.1 percent.

The main reason is the pandemic and a months of lockdown.

13.7 percent of the population in Georgia is receiving social benefits – this means that one in seven people live in extreme poverty.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of such people has increased by 16 percent. And now more than half a million people receive benefits – 510,343 people out of a total population of 3.7 million people in the country.