Galt & Taggart has published its weekly market watch, covering key events in the economics during the last week, that is world economic outlook updates of IMF, trafe deficit of Georgia and average median monthly nominal wages in Georgia.

IMF updates world economic outlook

In October 2022, the IMF released updated world economic outlook. The IMF projects the global economy to grow by 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023, which is the weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial and the COVID-19 crises. The slow growth reflects mainly significant slowdowns in the US, EU area and China. IMF forecasts global inflation to rise from 4.7% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2022 and to decline to 6.5% in 2023 and to 4.1% by 2024. High inflation prompts rapid monetary policy tightening in advanced economies, which may trigger widespread emerging market debt distress, underlines IMF. Contrary to the global trend, Georgian economy expected to be one of the growth leaders in the region with growth projected at 9.0% for 2022 and at average 5.0% over 2023-2027.

Trade deficit decreased by 3.0% y/y in Sep-22

In Sep-22, exports increased by 39.9% y/y to US$ 522.9mn, after a 41.2% y/y growth in previous month. Imports growth slowed to 13.8% y/y to US$1.1bn in September, after the strong growth of 41.5% y/y in August. As a result, the trade deficit decreased by 3.0% y/y to US$ 561.3mn, after a 41.6% y/y growth in August. Overall, in 9M22, trade deficit was up by 32.2% y/y to US$ 5.4bn, as exports increased by 37.4% y/y to US$ 4.1bn, while imports were up by 34.4% y/y to US$ 9.5bn.

Average median monthly nominal wages up by 11.2% y/y in 2021

In 2021, average monthly nominal wages in Georgia increased by 9.5% y/y to GEL 1,305, according to Geostat. Meanwhile, average median monthly nominal wages increased by 11.2% y/y to GEL 900 in 2021, which is 31.0% lower than the average nominal monthly wages. Notably, real monthly median wages rose by 1.5% y/y in 2021. By economic activity the highest monthly median wages were observed in the following sectors: information and communication (GEL 1,509), mining (GEL 1,386); electricity and gas supply (GEL 1,298), construction (GEL 1,276), public administration (GEL 1,273) and financial and insurance (GEL 1,254). The lowest monthly median wages were posted in water supply (GEL 625), arts, entertainment and recreation (GEL 645) and education (GEL 649) in 2021.