Georgia's main economic activities include the cultivation of agricultural products such as grapes, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts; mining of manganese, copper, and gold; and output of a small industrial sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals, machinery, and chemicals. The country imports nearly all its needed supplies of natural gas and oil products. It has sizeable hydropower capacity that now provides most of its energy needs. Georgia has overcome the chronic energy shortages and gas supply interruptions of the past by renovating hydropower plants and by increasingly relying on natural gas imports from Azerbaijan instead of from Russia. Construction of the Baku-T'bilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-T'bilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline, and the Kars-Akhalkalaki Railroad are part of a strategy to capitalize on Georgia's strategic location between Europe and Asia and develop its role as a transit point for gas, oil, and other goods. Georgia's economy sustained GDP growth of more than 10% in 2006-07, based on strong inflows of foreign investment and robust government spending. However, GDP growth slowed following the August 2008 conflict with Russia, and turned negative in 2009 as foreign direct investment and workers' remittances declined in the wake of the global financial crisis. The economy rebounded in 2010-11, with growth rates above 6% per year, but FDI inflows, the engine of Georgian economic growth prior to the 2008 conflict, have not recovered fully. Unemployment has also remained high at 16%. Georgia has historically suffered from a chronic failure to collect tax revenues; however, the government, since coming to power in 2004, has simplified the tax code, improved tax administration, increased tax enforcement, and cracked down on petty corruption, leading to higher revenues. The economic downturn of 2008-09 eroded the tax base and led to a decline in the budget surplus and an increase in public borrowing needs. The country is pinning its hopes for renewed growth on a determined effort to continue to liberalize the economy by reducing regulation, taxes, and corruption in order to attract foreign investment, with a focus on hydropower, agriculture, tourism, and textiles production. Since 2004, the government has taken a series of actions against endemic corruption, including reform of the traffic police and implementation of a fair examination system for entering the university system. The government has received high marks from the World Bank for its anti-corruption efforts.

This is the Refinancing Rate, the key monetary policy rate of the National Bank of Georgia

24.213% (31 December 2010 est.)

$2.436 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$1.312 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$4.249 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$3.546 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$5.026 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$3.96 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$795.7 million (31 December 2011)

$1.06 billion (31 December 2010)

$733.3 million (31 December 2009)

Citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock

Steel, machine tools, electrical appliances, mining (manganese, copper, and gold), chemicals, wood products, wine

35 million bbl (1 January 2011 est.)

8.495 billion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)

Vehicles, ferro-alloys, fertilizers, nuts, scrap metal, gold, copper ores

Azerbaijan 17.5%, Turkey 10.5%, Armenia 10%, Kazakhstan 7.3%, Ukraine 6.2%, US 5.5%, Canada 5.2%, Bulgaria 4.7% (2011)

Fuels, vehicles, machinery and parts, grain and other foods, pharmaceuticals

Turkey 17.8%, Ukraine 10%, Azerbaijan 8.3%, China 7.6%, Germany 6.9%, Russia 5.7% (2011)

$2.818 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$2.264 billion (31 December 2010 est.)

$11.08 billion (31 December 2011)

$10.77 billion (31 December 2010)

$NA $9.133 billion (31 December 2011 est.)