General decline of activity in financial intermediation in Georgia in August of the current year, due to the hostilities in the country, influenced the tendencies of plastic cards market development. While during the past year the number of banking plastic cards in circulation issued by Georgian commercial banks was growing at an average monthly rate of 5.7 percent, in August this number decreased by 0.2 percent as compared to the previous month and by September 1, 2008 constituted 3.1 million cards (1.8 times more than the figure for the same date in 2007). Out of this amount 85.9 percent are debit cards, as compared to 95.6 percent a year ago. This is a result of fast growing demand for credit cards. While the growth of the number of debit cards for the past year constituted 64.9 percent, the number of credit cards increased 5.9 times over the same period. Although, due to the aforementioned events, in August the number of credit cards in circulation increased only by 2.7 percent as compared to July instead of 21.0 percent average monthly growth over the past year, while the number of debit cards decreased by 0.6 percent instead of 4.6 percent growth, respectively.

VISA cards account for 78.9 percent of all cards in circulation, followed by EUROCARD/MASTERCARD with 13.8 percent, while local cards take up the remaining 7.3 percent. It should be noted that the share of VISA cards among the total amount of cards in circulation increased by 8.7 percentage points during the last year.

The volume of operations carried out with plastic cards has also decreased. In August of the current year 2.1 million operations (instead of 2.8 million in July) were carried out with plastic cards issued by resident commercial banks, total volume of which decreased by 22.8 percent as compared to the previous month and constituted 317.5 million GEL. Out of the total volume of operations with plastic cards issued by resident commercial banks 300.5 million GEL (94.7 percent) account for the operations carried out within Georgian territory (including operations by internet), which is 22.9 percent less as compared to July of the current year. 16.9 million GEL (5.3 percent) account for the operations carried out with the same cards abroad - 20.9 percent less than in July of the current year.

During the reporting month 720.9 thousand operations were carried out using ATMs and POS-terminals of the resident commercial banks (instead of 1000.4 thousand operations carried out in July), total value of which made up 161.9 million GEL (instead of 216.7 million GEL, respectively). 144.4 million GEL (89.2 percent) out of this amount fall on cards issued by resident banks (24.1 percent less as compared to July), and 17.5 million GEL (10.8 percent) - on cards issued by non-resident banks (34.1 percent less, respectively).

Despite the political situation in Georgia, development of plastic card related infrastructure continued in August. Compared to the beginning of the year the number of ATMs increased by 41.1 percent and the number of POS-terminals increased by 41.3 percent, amounting to 1219 and 7425 units respectively.

Current statistical information is published on the statistics page of the NBG's website.