As of October 1, 2020, the Georgian banking sector's assets reached GEL 54.34 billion, which is 6.61% more than in the previous month. According to the National Bank report, the growth of banking sector assets without the effect of the exchange rate amounted to 3.26%.
According to the National Bank, the volume of deposits in the banking sector has increased by more than 3 billion GEL in the last few months. The increase in the budget balance by the government on bank deposits is also expected to play a role in this growth, as according to the Ministry of Finance, the government has invested 1.6 billion GEL in the deposits of commercial banks.
"The volume of non-bank deposits in the banking sector amounted to GEL 32.84 billion as of October 1, 2020, which is GEL 1.91 billion, or 6.19% more than on September 1 (1.96% higher without the exchange rate effect). In September, compared to the previous month, there was an increase in time deposits by GEL 821.96 million or 5.66% (increased by 1.42% without the effect of the exchange rate), while demand deposits increased by GEL 1.09 billion or 6.66% (increased by 2.45% without the effect of the exchange rate)." - It is said in the report of the National Bank.
However, it turns out that in light of the recent depreciation of the lari, the dollarization ratio of deposits has increased even more. The larization ratio for October 1, 2020, is 38.41%. Compared to the situation on September 1, the larization of deposits decreased by 2.08 percentage points (excluding the exchange rate effect decreased by 0.49 percentage points).
"In September, the weighted annual average market interest rate on fixed-term deposits was 6.46%, including 8.33% on national currency deposits and 2.42% on foreign currency deposits," the National Bank said in a statement.
