The FINANCIAL — Balance of Payments statistic is compiled according to the methodology provided by the IMF’s “Balance of Payments Manual, Fifth edition”.
The current account deficit amounted to 458.1million USD (1.2 billion GEL) in the fourth quarter of 2018. The trade of goods and income account make negative contribution to current account, while services and current transfers – positive. It is to be noted that current account deficit in 2018 decreased by 6.4 percent from 8.8 percent of GDP to 7.7 percent of GDP.
Balance of goods is still the major contributor to the current account. Trade of goods deficit decreased by 4.1 percent annually and amounted to 1.1 billion USD (3.0 billion GEL) in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, exports increased by 15.5 percent and imports by 5.1 percent annually.
The positive balance of services (mostly due to exports of travel services) partially offsets the negative balance of goods. Exports of services increased by 5.2 percent and imports by 10.4 percent. The balance of travel services is the largest positive component of the services account. Export of travel services increased by 14.1 percent annually and amounted to 650.8million USD (1.7 billion GEL).
The positive balance of the current transfers also reduced the current account deficit. Credit of current transfers increased by 2.0 percent annually totaling 399.6 million USD (1.1billion GEL). Growth was observed for private transfers while, the government transfers declined.
Net foreign direct investments amounted to 130.5 million USD (349.2 million GEL) accounting for 3.1 percent of the fourth quarter’s GDP. The largest investment inflows were directed to Financial, manufacturing, real estate and hotels and restaurant sectors.
