Page 34 - GEORptAug22

7.0 FX
Georgia - Foreign exchange rate
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
1Q21
2Q21
3Q21
4Q21
1Q22
Currency (units per EUR) (average)
2.617
2.832
2.991
3.155
3.552
3.998
4.008
3.680
3.576
3.493
Currency (units per USD) (average)
2.367
2.509
2.534
2.819
3.110
3.314
3.327
3.120
3.125
3.114
Georgian lari tumbles amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Georgia's national currency depreciated against the US dollar amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the official data of the National Bank of Georgia, on 24 February the value of $1 was GEL3.1331, which represents a depreciation of 11.7 tetri compared to the previous day.
This was the fastest depreciation of the national currency since March 2020. The lari also depreciated by 8 tetri against the euro, and the value of one euro was GEL3.5031. Earlier in the winter, the lari was relatively strong against the US dollar and fluctuated in the range of 2.9-3 in February.
7.1 cryptocurrency
Georgia’s mountainous cryptocurrency problem
Just ahead of the new year, residents of Georgia’s remote mountain region of Svaneti gathered in a church to make a solemn oath upon an icon of St George: that they would not mine cryptocurrency.
“It is unfortunate that we had to resort to this extreme measure, but we have been left with no other option,” one local told RFE/RL following the ceremony. It was a desperate attempt to deal with what has become an intractable problem: chronic energy shortages in Svaneti due to unscrupulous use of power-hungry computers mining cryptocurrency.
A few days earlier, the electricity utility company Energo Pro warned that the situation was “untenable.” Overuse had led to a spate of accidents on transmission lines that feed power to Svaneti, forcing the companies to send crews via helicopter to the high-altitude region, in harsh winter conditions, to fix them.
“No infrastructure can handle the kind of stress that we are seeing there,” the
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