GDP, current US$ billion
GDP per capita, current US$
School Enrollment, primary (% gross (2015)
Life Expectancy at birth, years (2015)
Following several years of robust growth performance in the post-financial crisis and conflict period of 2008–09, Georgia’s macroeconomic outlook and fiscal position have deteriorated in recent years, amid a weak external environment and policy changes. Concerns about domestic uncertainties faded relatively quickly after the 2012 elections, but soon after, there were tensions in the country’s external environment, and Georgia could not return to the earlier growth model of utilizing outside finance to support domestic growth.
The country’s key economic partners saw their own growth falter as oil prices collapsed in the second half of 2014 and other geopolitical events materialized. Thus, following a very short-lived recovery in 2014, Georgia has struggled to revive its main engines of economic activity. At the same time, the external sector has weakened—the current account deficit widened back to two digits—but within a much less favorable context for the external inflows that may help sustain it.
The fiscal accounts have also weakened, partly because the authorities have sought to provide a countercyclical boost to domestic demand that has not proven fully effective, especially in the face of what seems likely to be a protracted adverse change on the country’s borders. The increase in social spending, however, helped to increase incomes at the bottom 40%.
Georgia’s key macroeconomic vulnerabilities include risks to external and fiscal sustainability. The pace of poverty reduction may continue to slow and eventually stall if the recent rate of private sector employment growth were to decline.
Last Updated: Apr 20, 2017