Georgia Economy - 2005

Economy - overview:
Georgia's main economic activities include the cultivation of agricultural products such as citrus fruits, tea, hazelnuts, and grapes; mining of manganese and copper; and output of a small industrial sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals, machinery, and chemicals. The country imports the bulk of its energy needs, including natural gas and oil products. Its only sizable internal energy resource is hydropower. Despite the severe damage the economy has suffered due to civil strife, Georgia, with the help of the IMF and World Bank, has made substantial economic gains since 1995, achieving positive GDP growth and curtailing inflation. However, the Georgian Government has suffered from limited resources due to a chronic failure to collect tax revenues. Georgia's new government is making progress in reforming the tax code, enforcing taxes, and cracking down on corruption. Georgia also suffers from energy shortages; it privatized the T'bilisi electricity distribution network in 1998, but payment collection rates remain low, both in T'bilisi and throughout the regions. The country is pinning its hopes for long-term growth on its role as a transit state for pipelines and trade. The construction on the Baku-T'bilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-T'bilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline have brought much-needed investment and job opportunities.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $14.45 billion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
9.5% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $3,100 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 20.5%
industry: 22.6%
services: 56.9% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
2.1 million (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 40%, industry 20%, services 40% (1999 est.)

Unemployment rate:
17% (2001 est.)

Population below poverty line:
54% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.3%
highest 10%: 27.9% (1996)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
37.1 (1996)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
5.5% (2004 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
18.5% of GDP (2004 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $671.7 million
expenditures: $804.7 million, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock

Industries:
steel, aircraft, machine tools, electrical appliances, mining (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood products, wine

Industrial production growth rate:
3% (2000)

Electricity - production:
6.732 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - consumption:
6.811 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
300 million kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
850 million kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
2,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
31,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA

Oil - imports:
NA

Natural gas - production:
60 million cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
1.16 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
1.1 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Current account balance:
$-632.9 million (2004 est.)

Exports:
$909.4 million (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
scrap metal, machinery, chemicals; fuel reexports; citrus fruits, tea, wine

Exports - partners:
Turkey 28.1%, Russia 9.7%, Spain 7.9%, Turkmenistan 7.5%, US 7.1%, Armenia 5.3%, Greece 5% (2004)

Imports:
$1.806 billion (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
fuels, machinery and parts, transport equipment, grain and other foods, pharmaceuticals

Imports - partners:
US 14.8%, Turkey 13.6%, Russia 11%, Germany 7.5%, UK 6.5%, Azerbaijan 6.2%, Ukraine 5.3%, Italy 4.1% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$231.4 million (2004 est.)

Debt - external:
$1.8 billion (2002)

Economic aid - recipient:
ODA $150 million (2000 est.)

Currency (code):
lari (GEL)

Exchange rates:
lari per US dollar - 1.9167 (2004), 2.1457 (2003), 2.1957 (2002), 2.073 (2001), 1.9762 (2000)