Page 26 - GEORptFeb21

double to 10% of GDP this year
well as smaller wage remittances from Georgians abroad will result in the current account deficit widening to 10.1% of GDP this year from 5.1% in 2019. The gap would then narrow to 6.8% of GDP in 2021 under the Fund’s scenario. The country has only just consolidated a downward trend towards smaller external deficits, including via a moderate weakening of the Georgian lari. Thinner currency inflows are likely to re-ignite pressures on the local currency.
Georgia’s current account deficit shrunk by 25% y/y to $897mn in 2019. That accounted for 5.1% of the year’s GDP, the smallest value in absolute terms since 2005, according to data published by the country’s central bank under BPM5 methodology.
5.1.3​ Capital flows
Private transfers to Georgia up 22% y/y in July
The July volume of money transfers from abroad to Georgia amounted to $188.7mn (Georgian lari, or GEL, 578.0mn), up 22.1% y/y.
The most important source of such transfers to Georgia remained Russia (21.4% of the total). Compared to July 2019, the transfers from Russia to
26​ GEORGIA Country Report​ February 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com