Tbilisi (GBC) - A delegation of the National Bank of Georgia visited the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Within the framework of the visit, a meeting was held between the President of the National Bank of Georgia, Natia Turnava, and the President of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Taleh Kazimov.
The parties discussed issues of strengthening regional cooperation in the field of monetary policy and central bank activities. The discussion touched upon the regional macroeconomic environment, the financial sector, and the impact of geopolitical factors on monetary policy.
Speaking about Georgia's macroeconomic outlook and monetary policy, Natia Turnava noted that the Georgian economy remains resilient to shocks. Inflation is below the target and economic growth is high. Price stability has been achieved through prudent decisions of the NBG's monetary policy, including timely tightening and subsequent gradual easing. As the President of the National Bank of Georgia noted, inflation will remain below the target in the coming months. From a financial stability perspective, the Georgian banking sector maintains solid profitability and healthy credit growth, in which the contribution of business loans is of paramount importance.
The meeting of the representatives of the central banks of the two countries focused on the opportunities for the development of financial services between the countries, including issues of improving the efficiency of cross-border payments. Currently, the National Bank of Georgia is working on the modernization of the payment infrastructure to make it faster and more efficient. These are two of the most important projects: upgrading the RTGS system and introducing an instant payment system. The parties agreed that within the framework of cooperation, they will explore the possibilities of cooperation in the field of payments in order to reduce transaction costs and increase efficiency.
At the meeting, the parties also discussed regional cooperation in the field of fintech. It is worth noting that in recent years both countries have taken significant steps towards the development of innovations. As noted at the meeting, deepening cooperation between the central banks of the two countries will contribute to the transition to a new stage of development of financial services.
After the meeting, Natia Turnava and Taleh Kazimov signed a memorandum of cooperation.
The meeting at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Republic of Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze.
The meeting was also attended by Tamta Sopromadze, Head of the Macroeconomics and Statistics Department of the National Bank of Georgia, Vakhtang Sikharulishvili, Head of the Banking Supervision Department, Natalia Chkoidze, Head of the Payment Systems Department, and Giorgi Edilashvili, Head of the International Relations Department.
