Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Giorgi Kobulia excludes the possibility of fully abolishing the banking regulations which entered into force on January 1, 2019. Minister made such statement after the meeting of the government:
“We have chosen the path, which we won’t abandon. We might change a few numbers within this direction. We might change the coefficient or different elements within this direction, however vectors and direction itself cannot be changed. This is a natural process, we are observing and based on these observations, we’ll decide whether we should make changes or not. Once we have statistical information we will know what to change. We might also find out that nothing needs to be changed.
When we were adopting these regulations, we were thinking about the people who cannot pay off their loans. Full abolishment of these regulations is impossible. We will not abandon chosen vectors. These regulations are meant to defend our population and especially those with lower income, so that they don’t take unreasonable loans”, stated the Minister of Economy, Giorgi Kobulia
In February 2019, the total value of loans under 5000 GEL amounted to 370,974,000, which is less by 132,965,473 GEL (26.4% decrease) compared to the same period of last year.
Based on the responsible crediting model, maximum of 50% was set as the percentage rate for taking a loan in Georgia. Additionally, the identical maximum time for covering the loans has been set.
The purchase of household technology, furniture or other similar products has decreased. Low-income citizens and freelancers are the ones who were most affected by bank regulations and this has already made a significant influence on country’s consumer market.
