Economic Sectors that Shrank in March
On April 30 Geostat, the national statistics service of Georgia, published the economic growth preliminary report for March 2020.
Under the document, the real GDP growth in March 2020 made up -2.7% compared to March 2019, while the real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020 totaled 1.5%.
As for specific economic sectors, in March the following directions recorded a year on year growth: construction-development, information and communications.
Slowdown is reported in accommodation and food products supply (tourism), transportation and storehouse complexes, art, entertainment and recreation, wholesale and retail trades, financial and insurance business, electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air supply, processing industry, real estate operations.
At the same tine, strict regulations introduced amid the pandemic spread are expected to further worsen the economic indicators in April. As the Geostat reports, in March the nunber of new registered bodies decreased by 47% to 2,426 ones.
The turnover of VAT payer companies made up 6.3 billion GEL, up 0.7% year on year.
As reported, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast a 4% economic slowdown in 2020 and a 3% growth in 2021.