Tbilisi (GBC) – The Financial Stability and Monetary Policy Committees of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) concludes, that the Georgian financial system remains resilient and continues to provide credit to the economy. According to the NBG, as of October 2024, banks have healthy capital and liquidity ratios. In October 2024, annual growth in loans, excluding the effect of the exchange rate, amounted to 18.6%, which was largely due to the growth in business loans.

According to the NBG, as of the third quarter of 2024, the ratio of loans to gross domestic product remains below the long-term trend. The strong economic growth in the first three quarters of 2024 slowed down the pace of closing the loan-to-GDP gap, although the loan-to-GDP ratio continues to gradually approach its long-term level. According to the Committee's assessment, against the background of maintaining the current dynamics of credit activity and the gradual normalization of economic growth, the negative loan-to-GDP gap will close in the first half of next year. Accordingly, there is no need to change the cyclical component of the countercyclical capital buffer at the current stage. In addition, commercial banks will continue to gradually accumulate the neutral component of the countercyclical capital buffer.

The National Bank continues to actively work to reduce structural risks caused by the high level of financial dollarization. Against the background of the measures taken by the NBG, dollarization has significantly decreased. However, the latter and the structural risks related to it remain one of the main challenges for the financial sector. In accordance with the stated policy, the National Bank, in coordination with the industry, taking into account the macroeconomic environment and risks, continues to implement the long-term de-dollarization plan. By the decision of the Financial Stability Committee, the limit for unhedged foreign currency loans has been increased from 400,000 to 500,000 GEL. The change will come into effect from January 1, 2025. It is worth noting that the NBG is also actively monitoring the dynamics of deposit dollarization, the level of which increased against the background of uncertainty in October and contributed to the accumulation of excess foreign currency liquidity in the financial system. To prevent excess liquidity from turning into dollarization of loans, the Monetary Policy Committee increased the upper limit of the reserve ratio on foreign currency liabilities by 5 percentage points.

The National Bank of Georgia continues to constantly monitor the country's financial stability, assess domestic and external risks, and will use all instruments at its disposal to minimize potential risks as necessary.

The next meeting of the Financial Stability Committee will be held on February 26, 2025.