BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 23
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Some 887.5 million lari ($275.8 million) worth of transactions were made with credit cards issued by foreign banks in Georgia during the first 9 months of 2020, which is 1.17 billion lari ($363.3 million) or 57 percent less than the same period in 2019, Trend reports via Georgian media.
The decrease in Georgia's foreign card transactions is primarily related to the reduction of tourism in the country. For example, in August through eptember 2019, 572 million transactions were made in Georgia with foreign bank cards. This year, this figure was 4 times less and amounted to 147 million lari ($45.6 million).
According to the National Tourism Administration, 1.6 million foreign nationals visited Georgia in the first nine months of 2020, most of them in the first quarter, before the border was closed. Compared to 2019, the tourism rate is reduced by 77 percent.
The decrease in transactions with foreign bank cards is one reason why the volume of local demand in Georgia has decreased this year. In the first eight months of 2020, the country's economy shrank by 5.6 percent.
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