Georgia's main economic activities include cultivation of agricultural products such as grapes, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts; mining of manganese, copper, and gold; and producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals, machinery, and chemicals in small-scale industries. The country imports nearly all of its needed supplies of natural gas and oil products. It has sizeable hydropower capacity that now provides most of its electricity needs.
Georgia has overcome the chronic energy shortages and gas supply interruptions of the past by renovating hydropower plants and by increasingly relying on natural gas imports from Azerbaijan instead of from Russia. Construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the South Caucasus gas pipeline, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad are part of a strategy to capitalize on Georgia's strategic location between Europe and Asia and develop its role as a transit hub for gas, oil, and other goods.
Georgia's economy sustained GDP growth of more than 10% in 2006-07, based on strong inflows of foreign investment, remittances, and robust government spending. However, GDP growth slowed following the August 2008 conflict with Russia, and sank to negative 4% in 2009 as foreign direct investment and workers' remittances declined in the wake of the global financial crisis. The economy rebounded in the period 2010-17, but FDI inflows, the engine of Georgian economic growth prior to the 2008 conflict, have not recovered fully. Unemployment remains persistently high.
The country is pinning its hopes for faster growth on a continued effort to build up infrastructure, enhance support for entrepreneurship, simplify regulations, and improve professional education, in order to attract foreign investment and boost employment, with a focus on transportation projects, tourism, hydropower, and agriculture. Georgia had historically suffered from a chronic failure to collect tax revenues; however, since 2004 the government has simplified the tax code, increased tax enforcement, and cracked down on petty corruption, leading to higher revenues. The government has received high marks from the World Bank for improvements in business transparency. Since 2012, the Georgian Dream-led government has continued the previous administration's low-regulation, low-tax, free market policies, while modestly increasing social spending and amending the labor code to comply with International Labor Standards. In mid-2014, Georgia concluded an association agreement with the EU, paving the way to free trade and visa-free travel. In 2017, Georgia signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China as part of Tbilisi’s efforts to diversify its economic ties. Georgia is seeking to develop its Black Sea ports to further facilitate East-West trade.
5% (2017 est.)
2.8% (2016 est.)
2.9% (2015 est.)
4.8% (2019 est.)
2.6% (2018 est.)
6% (2017 est.)
Fitch rating: BB (2019)
Moody's rating: Ba2 (2017)
Standard & Poors rating: BB (2019)
$55.776 billion (2019 est.)
$53.129 billion (2018 est.)
$50.662 billion (2017 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
$17.694 billion (2019 est.)
$14,992 (2019 est.)
$14,257 (2018 est.)
$13,590 (2017 est.)
note: data are in 2017 dollars
22% of GDP (2019 est.)
21.3% of GDP (2018 est.)
19.2% of GDP (2017 est.)
agriculture: 8.2% (2017 est.)
industry: 23.7% (2017 est.)
services: 67.9% (2017 est.)
household consumption: 62.8% (2017 est.)
government consumption: 17.1% (2017 est.)
investment in fixed capital: 29.5% (2017 est.)
investment in inventories: 2.4% (2017 est.)
exports of goods and services: 50.4% (2017 est.)
imports of goods and services: -62.2% (2017 est.)
Overall score: 83.7 (2020)
Starting a Business score: 99.6 (2020)
Trading score: 90.1 (2020)
Enforcement score: 75 (2020)
milk, grapes, maize, potatoes, wheat, watermelons, tomatoes, tangerines/mandarins, barley, apples
steel, machine tools, electrical appliances, mining (manganese, copper, gold), chemicals, wood products, wine
6.7% (2017 est.)
686,000 (2019 est.)
agriculture: 55.6%
industry: 8.9%
services: 35.5% (2006 est.)
11.8% (2016 est.)
19.5% (2019 est.)
36.4 (2018 est.)
46 (2011)
lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 31.3% (2008)
revenues: 4.352 billion (2017 est.)
expenditures: 4.925 billion (2017 est.)
28.7% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
-3.8% (of GDP) (2017 est.)
44.9% of GDP (2017 est.)
44.4% of GDP (2016 est.)
note: data cover general government debt and include debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data include debt issued by subnational entities; Georgia does not maintain intragovernmental debt or social funds
calendar year
-$1.348 billion (2017 est.)
-$1.84 billion (2016 est.)
$3.566 billion (2017 est.)
$2.831 billion (2016 est.)
Russia 12%, Azerbaijan 12%, Armenia 9%, Bulgaria 8%, China 6%, Turkey 6%, Ukraine 6% (2019)
copper, cars, iron alloys, wine, packaged medicines (2019)
$7.415 billion (2017 est.)
$6.747 billion (2016 est.)
Turkey 17%, China 11%, Russia 9%, Azerbaijan 6%, United States 6%, Germany 5% (2019)
cars, refined petroleum, copper, packaged medicines, natural gas (2019)
$3.039 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$2.756 billion (31 December 2016 est.)
$18.149 billion (2019 est.)
$17.608 billion (2018 est.)
laris (GEL) per US dollar -
2.535 (2017 est.)
2.3668 (2016 est.)
2.3668 (2015 est.)
2.2694 (2014 est.)
1.7657 (2013 est.)
NOTE: The information regarding Georgia on this page is re-published from the 2021 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Georgia 2021 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Georgia 2021 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 16 Dec 23, Copyright © 2023 ITA all rights reserved.