BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 18
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The annual loan portfolio growth as of November 2019 reached 13.8 percent in Georgia, said Koba Gvenetadze, president of the National Bank of Georgia, Trend reports via Georgian media outlets.
“This is real growth without the influence of the exchange rate, which is a really good indicator,” said the president of the National Bank.
Talking about the structure of the loan portfolio, Gvenetadze explained that the three components of the portfolio are the corporate, small and medium-sized businesses and retail sector.
"It is the corporate and small and medium sectors that create additional jobs in the economy,” said Gvenetadze.
According to him, consultations continue with regard to the possible reduction of the lending margin in foreign currency to 100,000 lari ($34,549).
“We conducted interventions in respect of foreign exchange reserves, and also reduced reserve requirements in foreign currency, but the most important and most effective lever in this case is to tighten monetary policy and increase interest rates,” Gvenetadze said.
Recently, National Bank of Georgia has increased the refinancing rate by 0.5 percentage points to 9 percent. The decision was made at a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee on December, 11.
The annual inflation in November reached 7 percent in Georgia, which was mainly influenced by the depreciation of the Georgian lari, says the NBG.
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