The recent World Bank report of the Global Economic Outlook and the NBG review were presented at the joint meeting of the National Bank of Georgia and the World Bank. The economists, financiers, industry experts and representatives of the government, non-governmental sector and academia, present at the meeting, discussed the current events and prospects in the global economy.

According to the report, the overlapping shocks of the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the drastic economic downturn amid global financial stance have significantly hampered the development of emerging economies and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Ayhan Kose, Deputy Chief Economist of the World Bank, noted that many developing countries are struggling to cope with weak economic growth, persistently high inflation and record levels of debt, and policymakers must act speedily to prevent the spillover of financial stress and reduce looming domestic vulnerabilities.

Archil Mestvirishvili, Acting Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, noted that inflation in Georgia tends to decrease, there is strong economic growth, and that the banking sector is liquid and well capitalized.

"Our partners from the World Bank presented the report and talked about global challenges today. For our part, we discussed the potential impact of these processes on the Georgian economy. Georgia, as a country with a small open economy, had to deal with a number of challenges at the same time - the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. The NBG has taken adequate measures to respond to global challenges and maintained financial stability and international ratings," said Archil Mestvirishvili.

Archil Mestvirishvili, Acting Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, and representatives of governmental, academic and international organizations, were pleased to answer questions of the audience. The participants enjoyed interesting discussion at the end of the meeting.

The Global Economic Outlook report is available here.