Tourist arrivals up 33.0% y/y in March 2018
Total international arrivals to Georgia increased 13.2% y/y to 0.58mn visitors in March 2018, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A 33.0% y/y growth in tourist arrivals (0.29mn persons, 50.5% of total) drove arrival growth. Out of top countries by arrivals, in March 2018, visitors continued to increase from Armenia (+3.5% y/y), Turkey (+18.3% y/y), Russia (+36.9% y/y) and Iran (+46.2% y/y), while arrivals were down from Azerbaijan (-8.7% y/y). Arrivals from EU were up 39.4% y/y to over 22,100 visitors. Overall, in 1Q18 international arrivals were up 15.6% to 1.46mn persons while tourist arrivals were up 28.4% to 0.66mn persons.
Inflation was 2.8% y/y and -0.4% m/m in March 2018
The annual CPI inflation was 2.8%, close to the target level in March 2018, according to GeoStat. Core inflation was 1.8% in March, almost unchanged from 1.7% in previous month. Annual price changes were driven by price increases in food and non-alcoholic beverages (+3.9% y/y, +1.19ppts), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+6.2% y/y, +0.42ppts) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (+4.7% y/y, +0.39ppts) categories. On a monthly basis, there was 0.4% deflation in March 2018. Price decrease in food and non-alcoholic beverages (-0.6% m/m, -0.18ppts) and transport (-1.0% m/m, -0.13ppts) categories were the major drivers of monthly Inflation dynamics.
International reserves up 6.6% y/y in March 2018
Gross international reserves were up 6.6% y/y to US$ 3.0bn in March 2018, while reserves were down 0.1% m/m, according to NBG. NBG Purchased US$ 20mn on auction held at April 3, 2018. Change in reserves was attributed to government FX operations and/or asset revaluation
