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According to preliminary estimates, Georgian economic growth declined from 7.2% to 5.2% between July and August 2014. Although the August estimate is still quite high, there is increasing concern that the national economy is set to slow down in the second half of the year.
On the downside, the ISET-PI Leading Economic Indicators have revised the growth forecast for the third quarter of 2014 downward from 3.7% to 2.2%, and yearly growth to 3.8%. This implies a possibility of a significant economic slowdown in the last four months of 2014.
Secondly, the Consumer Confidence Index, and especially its Present Situation component, has had a declining trajectory since June (see Chart 2.). Although the index increased in Tbilisi from July to August, this was offset by the decline in the rest of Georgia, which was mainly a result of the drought and expected bad harvest. Download the full report
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After a dip in April the GDP growth rate seems to be back on track, the year-on-year growth rate in July was 7.2%. Higher rates of electricity consumption and increase in the change of VAT payers’ turnover corroborate this evidence. In July electricity consumption and VAT payers’ turnover were 3.8 and 15.4 percent higher compared to the same month in the previous year.
However, the optimistic growth data is not reflected in the consumer sentiment, as captured by the CCI index. In particular, after a slight increase between April and June this year, the CCI Present situation index fell in July and continued falling in August. Why are consumers not feeling the benefits of higher growth? One has to keep in mind that a significant share of population in Georgia is employed in agriculture (typically, subsistence farming), while the GDP growth is driven largely by trade and manufacturing sectors, which command a significant share of GDP - together about 40%, but a much lower share of the overall employment in the country. Therefore, the gains in these sectors are unlikely to be immediately reflected in the gains of self-employed rural population. Download the full report
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