BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia is more dependent on remittances than on foreign direct investment (FDI), Trend reports referring to the National Bank of Georgia.
According to the data, after 2017, the volume of remittances exceeds the volume of FDIs entering the country, which is due to a decrease in attention to Georgia from international investors.
According to the National Bank, remittances are growing in parallel; in 7 months of 2021, remittances increased by 35 percent and amounted to $1.3 billion, which is 2.5 times more than the total volume of foreign investments in 2020.
As for the sources of remittances, most of the money comes from the Russian Federation, from which $225 million was transferred over 7 months of this year. Italy is in second place with $215 million, the US is in third place with $161 million, and Greece is in fourth place with $142 million. The ranking of the major remittance countries reflects the distribution of the population that emigrated from Georgia.
The volume of foreign direct investment in 2020 decreased by half and amounted to $572 million. The decline continued into 2021, and in the first quarter, the country received only $132 million in FDI. The decline in investment in 2020 was caused by the pandemic, but it is noteworthy that the volume of FDI has been declining for several years before, which means that Georgia's investment potential and its international attractiveness have decreased.
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