EBRD Predicts 3.4 GDP Growth for Georgia

TBILISI – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development changed its 2016 forecast for Georgia and now predicts a 3.4 per cent growth of GDP.

The EBRD’s previous forecast from November 2015 said that Georgia’s GDP growth would amount to 2.6 per cent this year. January – May statistics yielded higher growth of 0.8 per cent.

The bank also suggests that the GDP growth in 2017 will be 3.9 per cent.
The EBRD’s acting chief correspondent Hans Peter Lankes, said regional growth has shown modest signs of an upward trend after five consecutive years of a slowdown.

“The EBRD’s latest Regional Economic Prospect report showed average growth of 1.4 per cent in 2016 across the bank’s 36 countries of operations. The total is slightly below the 1.6 per cent seen in November 2015, but above the 0.5 per cent result for 2015. A further strengthening of 2.5 per cent is expected in 2017,” he said.

Lankes said the Eastern part of the region has been affected heavily by what is happening in Russia and Ukraine over the past two years. He said he sees some positive signs in the future and predicted that bank’s prospects will look better later this year, including in Ukraine.

By Eka Karsaulidze