Tbilisi (GBC) – Foreign exchange lending has finally been tightened. The annual growth rate has decreased to 8.3%., - as of June (01.06.2025).
At the beginning of the year, it reached 11.9%. Dollarization remains the main risk for the country. From August 1, the 750,000 limit on foreign exchange lending will come into effect and there is an expectation that the sector will go into negative gear.
On the threats arising from dollarization, the Head of the Financial Stability Department of the National Bank of Georgia, Davit Utiashvili, announced about each round of raising the limit.
The peak was last year, during the elections, when the National Bank also tightened the reserve ratio on funds attracted in foreign currency. In the pre-election excitement, companies and individuals, some of the accounts were transferred from GEL to foreign currency, in anticipation of a possible depreciation of the exchange rate.
This accumulated more foreign currency liquidity in current accounts and there was a danger that the sector would not be able to resist the temptation and resort to foreign currency loans. This would also increase dollarization.
According to the analytical tables of the National Bank of Georgia for June, which; delays the analysis by 2 months and therefore represents only 4 months of the year, the annual growth of foreign exchange loans has almost halved, to +8.8%Y.Y (4m/2024 - _16.4%Y.Y).
The ratio of business loans still does not meet the criteria of the National Bank of Georgia. Dollarization is 60.26%. It was reduced by 0.01 percentage points in May. The annual change is only 0.9% (01.06.2024 - 61.15%)
As of June, the banks' 37 billion business portfolio included 22.4 billion GEL in foreign currency loans (01.06.2024 - 20 billion out of 33 billion).