TBC Capital published a weekly update from the Chief Economist. The report reads that December trade data cooled a bit, though when compared with the previous month’s outstanding highs, as the annual growth rates remained high with still increasing trend when compared to 2019.
For the full year 2021, with the year-on-year growth of 26.9% and 25.1%, both exports and imports exceeded its 2019 levels by 11.7% and 5.9%, respectively. Detailed trade, as well as remittances and tourism data, will be available later this week. Per initial estimates, tourism continued its gradual recovery and remittances maintained strong performance. An estimated balance of trade in goods, net tourism and net remittances in Q4 almost halved year-on-year from -7.7% to around 4.1% of GDP.
"On the GEL side, as a result of tighter policy stance December M2 monetary aggregate remained moderate or even quite low when adjusted for the same month GDP growth estimate", - the report reads.
