Tourist arrivals up 20.7% y/y in June 2018
Total international visitors to Georgia increased 14.2% y/y to 0.61mn visitors in June 2018, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A 20.7% y/y growth in tourist arrivals (0.40mn trips, 65.9% of total) drove the international visitors’ growth. Out of top countries by visitors, in June 2018, international visitors continued to increase from Russia (+27.5% y/y), Azerbaijan (+10.0% y/y) and Turkey (+14.7% y/y), while visitors were down from Armenia (-5.5% y/y) and Iran (-5.4% y/y).
Inflation was 2.2% y/y and -0.6% m/m in June 2018
Annual CPI inflation was 2.2% in June 2018 down from 2.5% in May 2018, according to GeoStat. Core inflation was down to 1.6% from 1.8% in previous month. Annual price changes were driven by price increases in transport (+4.6% y/y, +0.63ppts), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+5.2% y/y, +0.43ppts), healthcare (+5.1% y/y, +0.43ppts) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+4.9% y/y, +0.34ppts) categories. On a monthly basis, there was 0.6% deflation in June 2018. Price decrease in food and non-alcoholic beverages (-2.6% m/m, -0.79ppts) was the major driver of monthly inflation dynamics.
International reserves up 1.6% y/y in June 2018
Gross international reserves were up 1.6% y/y to US$ 3.0bn in June 2018, while reserves were down 0.3% m/m, according to NBG. NBG purchased US$ 30mn on 3 auctions in June, 2018. Change in reserves was attributed to government FX operations and/or asset revaluation.
