2017 is shaping up as one of the best years in Georgia’s post-2008 crisis history. The economy is expected to expand by about 5%, beating early expectations and official forecasts by the likes of the IMF and the World Bank. Based on updated GeoStat figures for Q1 and Q2, ISET-PI’s annual growth forecast currently stands at 4.9%. Even that figure is likely to be revised upwards if Q3 growth turns out to be higher than suggested by GeoStat’s preliminary estimate of 4.4%.
Georgian Consumer Confidence (CCI) continued to improve, albeit slightly, in December 2017. CCI added 0.5 index points over November 2017, and 8.7 index points y/y, that is compared to December 2016. Interestingly, people’s perceptions of the recent past and expectations diverged in December. CCI’s Present Situation sub-index went down by 2.3 points m/m, from -23.2 to -25.5), whereas the Expectations sub-index went up by 3.4 index points (from -13.4 to -10). However, both sub-indices ended the year ahead of their last year’s levels. The Present Situation sub-index demonstrated a rather modest improvement of only 4.3 index points (from -29.8 to -25.5). The Expectations sub-index added a very healthy 13.2 index points (from -23.2 to -10), betraying a sense of cautious optimism on the part of Georgian consumers.
According to a nationally representative sample of 367 individuals undertaken in early October 2017, ISET’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) added only 0.2 points, rising from -19 in September to -18.8 points in October. A similarly miniscule change was observed in both sub-indices: the Present Situation Index improved by 0.3 (from -24.1 to -23.8), and the Expectations Index by 0.1 index points (from -13.9 to -13.8), compared to September.