In December 2014, Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, talked about foreign investments in Georgia in the third quarter of the year. According to his statement, the amount of foreign investments reached USD 508 million in the third quarter of 2014 which was 99% more than it was in the same period of the previous year and 155% more than that of the same period of 2012.

FactCheck

took interest in the Prime Minister’s statement and verified its accuracy.

The National Statistics Office of Georgia published the preliminary data of the third quarter of 2014 on 9 December 2014. According to these data,

the amount of foreign investment in Georgia reached USD 508 million in the third quarter of the year which was much more than that of the first (USD 265 million) and second (USD 151 million) quarters. It should be noted that the third quarter of 2014 saw a significant rise in direct investments from China which invested a total of USD 149 million and which is much more than any other country (the largest share of this investment was made in the construction of the Olympic Village). Azerbaijan held the second place in foreign investments in Georgia with USD 95 million whilst the Netherlands came third with USD 90 million.

Source: National Statistics Office of Georgia

According to the data of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the largest amount of money totalling USD 181 million was invested in the field of construction. The transport and communications field comes second with USD 109 million. Both fields have seen a significant rise as compared to the third quarter of 2013.

Source: National Statistics Office of Georgia

Georgia attracted a total of USD 255 million of foreign direct investment in the third quarter of 2013 which is 99% less than that of the same period of 2014. As for the amount of investment in the third quarter of 2012, it reached USD 199 million which is 155% less than in the third quarter of 2014.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the amount of investments in Georgia equalled USD 923 million in the first nine months of 2014 which was 29% more than in the same period of 2013 and 36% more than that of the same period of 2012. “Additionally, if we look at these data in a long-term perspective, we will see that such a high amount of foreign investments has been observed in none of the quarters since the second quarter of 2008,” stated Mr Gharibashvili.

According to the data of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, a total of USD 923 million was invested in Georgia from abroad in the first nine months of 2014. The amount of investments equalled USD 715 million in the same period of 2013 which is, indeed, 29% less than in the same period of 2014. A total of USD 678 million was invested in Georgia from abroad in the first nine months of 2012 which is 36% less than in the first three quarters of 2014.

As for the comparison of the third quarter of 2014 to the quarters of the previous years, the latest example when investments were more than USD 508 million was in the second quarter of 2008 – USD 605.4 million.

Table 1:

 Foreign Direct Investment by Quarters (USD Million)

Year	Overall	I Quarter	II Quarter	III Quarter	IV Quarter
2007	2,014.8	421.4	401.5	489.1	702.9
2008	1,564.0	537.7	605.4	134.7	286.2
2009	658.4	114.0	177.2	173.2	194.0
2010	814.5	166.5	208.3	225.6	214.1
2011	1,117.2	209.7	248.3	316.6	342.6
2012	911.6	261.2	217.7	199.0	233.7
2013	941.9	252.3	207.9	254.8	226.9
2014	923.3	265.3	150.5	507.5

Source: National Statistics Office of Georgia

It should be noted that the early increase of attracted investments is essential to building a stable economy. The amount of foreign direct investments in Georgia in the third quarter of 2014 is quite high; however, the data of the previous quarters are significantly lower.

It should also be noted that the amount of foreign direct investments abroad from Georgia also increased significantly in the third quarter of 2014. Specifically, Georgia invested a total of USD 73 million in overseas countries. This amount was USD 1 million in the third quarter of 2013. Hence, if we take the net inflow of foreign direct investments (inflow minus outflow), the overall amount will reach USD 435 million which is 71% more than that of the same period of 2013 (USD 254 million).

Conclusion

The amount of foreign investments did indeed reach USD 508 million in the third quarter of 2014 which is 99% more than in the same period of the previous year (USD 255 million) and 155% more than that of the same period of 2012 (USD 199 million). The investment of the first nine months of 2014 is USD 923 million which is 29% more than in 2013 and 36% more than in 2012.

FactCheck concludes that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement: “The amount of foreign investments reached USD 508 million in the third quarter of 2014 which is 99% more than it was in the same period of the previous year and 155% more than that of the same period of 2012,” is TRUE.