Giorgi Khishtovani, director of the PMC Research Center, says that maintaining the nominal wage growth rate, even at the same rate as last year, in 2025 will be unrealistic. Moreover, he believes that in the current situation, businesses will find it difficult to increase wages.
"The growth of wages in the last three years has been impressive. Given that in the fourth quarter of 2021 the average nominal wage was 1,464 GEL per month, and in the fourth quarter of 2024 the average wage was 2,218 GEL, the nominal growth in three years is 51.6%.
The rate of wage growth in the last three years has been rapidly decreasing, while in the fourth quarter of 2022 the increase compared to the previous year was 21%, and in the fourth quarter of 2023 - 15.3%, in the fourth quarter of 2024 the rate of wage growth dropped to 8.5%.
Given that the current political crisis has not yet had a real impact on the decline in the growth rate, it is likely that during 2025, with the addition of this effect, maintaining the nominal wage growth rate at least at the previous year's rate seems unrealistic.
The situation "What makes it difficult for employees is that over the last three years, we have had low inflation, and this year, along with the decline in the rate of wage growth, the inflation rate is likely to increase to at least 4%, which will most likely "eat up" a large portion of the nominal wage growth," Khishtovani wrote on Facebook.
