Georgia ranks 6 out of 190 countries in 2019 Doing Business
Georgia improved its position by 3 places as is ranked a6th in the WB’s 2019 Doing Business. With this ranking, Georgia is the highest ranked economy in the Europe and Central Asia region, followed by Macedonia (10), Azerbaijan (25) and Kazakhstan (28). Georgia made notable improvements in the following areas as measured by 2019 DB report: 1) Georgia made starting a business easier by allowing voluntary value added tax registration at the time of business incorporation; 2) Georgia made paying taxes easier by levying income tax on distributed profits rather than on taxable profits; 3) Georgia made enforcing contracts easier by introducing random and automatic assignment of cases to judges throughout the courts. Report also mentions that Georgia reduced its relative gap to the best regulatory performance on starting a business the most globally in 2017/18.
Real GDP growth was 5.6% y/y in September 2018
Georgia’s economy grew by 5.6% y/y in September 2018 after growing 2.0% y/y in previous month, according to Geostat’s rapid estimates. In September 2018, the growth was posted in manufacturing, financial intermediation, trade, real estate, transport and hotels and restaurants sectors. Overall, real GDP growth was 4.9% y/y in 9M18. Monthly rapid estimates are based on VAT turnover, fiscal and monetary statistics.
Inflation was 2.3% y/y and 0.3% m/m in October 2018
Annual CPI inflation was 2.3% in October 2018 down from 2.7% in previous month, according to Geostat. Core inflation was 1.7% unchanged compared to the previous month. Annual price changes were driven by price increases in transport (+6.5% y/y, +0.86ppts), healthcare (+6.1% y/y, +0.51ppts) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+5.7% y/y, +0.39ppts) categories, while prices were down in clothing and footwear (-7.1% y/y, -0.25ppts). On a monthly basis, there was 0.3% inflation in October 2018. Price increase in clothing and footwear (+6.3% m/m, +0.2ppts) was the major driver of monthly inflation dynamics.
