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sales but he said that he expected the situation to improve during the year as smuggling was tackled.
Akaki Zoidze, head of the parliament’s health committee and a lawmaker of the ruling Georgian Dream party, played down the impact of the smuggling, saying that the illegal market covered less than 1% of total sales.
"In the regional context we see that the excise taxes in Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan are radically low. The difference is more than one dollar [per package]. This fact is quite a great temptation for people engaged in illegal trade. Accordingly, the share of illegal trade may increase. This process has already begun in recent years. Illegal trade and consumption on the lower-end products have reflected in our sales,” he said.
Zoidze added that consumers were obtaining raw tobacco, which is seven to eight times cheaper than imported cigarettes, but was not subject to quality checks. Smuggling and use of raw tobacco would significantly affect the government’s budget, the lawmaker noted.
Cigarette prices increased by an average of 50 tetri ($0.19/€0.16) in Georgia following amendments to the tax code that came into play on January 1.
6.2 Debt
Georgia - Gross external debt
3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 3Q18 4Q18 1Q19 2Q19 3Q19 4Q19
Gross external debt ($ mn)
16,959 17,319 17,809 17,461 17,299 17,812 17,822 18,232 17,902 18,631
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Gross external debt (% GDP)
81.2 84.6 83.2 84.7 109.4 110.7 106.4 101.3 105.4
source: CEIC, World Bank
Georgia's public debt nears 43% of GDP at end-January
Georgia's public external debt hit $5.68bn (Georgian lari, or GEL, 16.43bn), or nearly 33% of GDP, as of January 31, according to the Georgian Ministry of Finance. When GEL4.20bn (9% of GDP) worth of domestic public debt is added, it results in a total public debt of nearly 43% of GDP.
The external public debt is $63.2mn less than was recorded in the previous month and $210.4mn more than in the same period of last year.
The largest creditors of the State of Georgia are the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). Georgia’s debt to the ADB is $1.24bn, to the IDA $948mn and to the IBRD $800mn.
As for other financial institutions, the list of debtors includes the EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) to which $558.4mn is owed and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which a debt of $124.3mn is owed to. As for other states, Germany is the leading bilateral creditor. Georgia's public external debt with Berlin stands at $369mn.
28 GEORGIA Country Report April 2020 www.intellinews.com
