NEWS

Georgia has a lot to lose economically in the conflict with Russia, which could alienate foreing investment and end a period of very strong growth, analystis estimate. 

"Foreing investors, who played a key role in the good performance of the country, could be scared", Trevor Cullinan, an analyst with the rating agency Standard and Poor's (SP), told AFP.

After the difficult years of transition and the conflicts that followed its independence in 1991, Georgia is going through a real economic boom. Since the "Rose Revolution" in 2003, the country is one of the most dynamic in the former Soviet Union and many reforms saluted by international financial institutions are beginning to bear fruit.

Growth exceeded the 10% in 2016 and 2017, and this year is excepted to be around 8%.

The economy of the country depends largely on agriculture, which represents 30% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but the industrial sector, construction, the financial sector and telecommunications are developed at a single level.

With an ideal location between the Caspian Sea and the North Sea, the country prevailed above all as the point of forced passage to transport oil and gas from Central Asia to Europe avoiding Russia and Iran, which gives it significant income.

Since the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline in 2006, Georgia is becoming "a regional energy transport platform" despite the fact that it does not have its own hydrocarbon resources, Cullinan said.