NBG Governor: External factors contributed at least 2.2 percentage points to Georgia’s inflation rate

“External factors accounted for at least 2.2 percentage points of Georgia’s current 5.9 per cent inflation rate, driven primarily by international oil market pressures linked to Middle East conflict,” National Bank of Georgia (NBG) Governor Natia Turnava has announced.

“As a net importer of petrol and diesel, Georgia cannot remain immune to global energy price spikes,” Turnava stated in response to questions regarding annual inflation figures published by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), which showed consumer prices rose by 0.9 per cent month-on-month in October 2026, pushing annual inflation to 5.9 per cent.

Turnava reassured markets that core underlying price trends remain contained.

“At the same time, we remain relatively confident as sticky inflation indicators, such as core inflation, which excludes volatile items, as well as services inflation, continue to track close to our target,” Turnava noted.

“However, our monetary stance remains tight. We raised the key policy rate by 0.25 percentage points in May to 8.25 per cent. We stand ready to tighten monetary policy further should we observe second-round inflationary effects. Conversely, we are prepared to ease policy if conflict in the Middle East stabilises and international market volatility subsides,” Turnava added.