The Central Bank of Belgium held a conference for the governors of the central banks of the IMF’s countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg Constituency on February 18. The conference brought together the governors of the central banks of Croatia, Ukraine, northern Macedonia, Israel, Moldova, Cyprus and Armenia. The focus of the conference was: Post-Covid and Geopolitical Challenges: A New Reality for Macroeconomics and the Real Estate Market.

 

Koba Gvenetadze, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, was invited to speak in the first session. He discussed the topic - Covid-19 and Recent Geopolitical Challenges: Macroeconomic Consequences and Prospects, noting that the escalation of a large-scale conflict in the region would also affect the Georgian economy and intensify the external shock in three main areas: exports, remittances and tourism.

 

NBG Governor stressed the importance of the IMF-supported program through the extended facility in 2017-2021 and noted that the program contributed to the economic recovery of Georgia.

 

"Inflation is a major global challenge of recent times. The contribution of temporary factors to inflation remains high, posing risks of rising long-term inflation expectations. With this in mind, from the spring of 2021, we have been tightening policy to ensure that recent price increases - albeit mainly driven by temporary factors – does not lead to pick-ups in long-run inflation expectations. We are among few central banks who publishes policy rate path - we provide a forward guidance in term of the monetary policy rate forecast, to help the market form a consistent expectations about the outlook of the economy. This helps lower macroeconomic uncertainty in these uncertain times," Governor Gvenetadze said.