Page 42 - GEORptFeb22

Georgia sells GEL181.9mn in treasury notes and GEL40mn in treasury bills in January
In January 2022, GEL181.9mn in treasury notes and GEL40mn in treasury bills were sold, reports bank Galt & Taggart.
Weighted average interest rate on 10-year instruments was 9.833%, on five-year notes was 9.795%, on two-year notes was 9.928%, on 1-year instruments was 10.007%, and it stood at 10.193% for six-month instruments. Notably, non-residents’ treasury holdings increased 4.8% m/m to GEL525.8mn in December, after a 21.7% m/m growth in November. As a result, the share of non-residents in total outstanding holdings increased by 0.2ppts m/m to 9.6% in December.
8.3 Capital market
Georgia’s central bank successful in de-dollarisation, responsible lending, says World Bank
The World Bank, within the framework of the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) has given a positive assessment to the work of the National bank of Georgia (NBG) under the FSA Assessment Report.
Successes in de-dollarisation and more responsible lending are highlighted, while the development of capital markets is seen as a target to be pursued in the future.
According to the document, there has been a strong focus on the development of the capital markets in Georgia in the last few years already.
Well-developed domestic capital markets could contribute to Georgia’s sustainable economic growth, the WB argues. In the context of bank dominance in the financial sector and still high dollarization, capital market development could also contribute to more effective mobilization of domestic savings, diversification in the sources of financing for the corporate and household sector, including access to debt in longer tenors.
According to the World Bank report, significant progress has been made since 2017 towards implementing a risk-based supervisory framework, supported by the issuance of a Code of Corporate Governance and the introduction of a General Risk Assessment Programme (GRAPE) assessment.
NBG has taken positive steps to respond to promote fintech development, including establishing a fintech directorate to monitor market developments, track potential risks, and initiate several fintech-related initiatives.
42 GEORGIA Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com