By the close of the previous year, Georgian commercial banks reported that residents of Russia who relocated to Georgia and obtained permanent residence held deposits totaling 2.42 billion lari, roughly $969.4 million. This figure comes from the annual report issued by the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). The report reflects the bank’s comprehensive accounting of foreign-born residents and their financial activity within Georgia, offering a clear snapshot of how cross-border mobility translates into domestic banking balances. The regulator notes that the reporting requirement is annual, which means the NBG does not provide month-by-month shifts within the current year in its standard release. This procedural detail explains why the most recent official update focuses on year-end figures and leaves some questions about early-year dynamics to informed observers and subsequent quarterly reviews. The result is a tangible demonstration of how inflows from new permanent residents can accumulate in local financial institutions, signaling both consumer behavior and the broader financial implications for Georgia’s banking sector. [Source: National Bank of Georgia Annual Report]
Georgian rules require the local currency regulator to publish this kind of summary once every twelve months, preserving a stable metric for analysts and policy makers. While the annual format is predictable, it also creates a lag between real-time changes and official visibility. As a consequence, the Central Bank’s public data do not immediately reveal how the deposit landscape evolves at the start of a new year. Still, the year-end data provide a strong baseline for understanding the relative scale of inflows, the composition of foreign-depositors, and the potential impact on liquidity, credit conditions, and currency markets within Georgia. The picture drawn by the NBG helps stakeholders gauge the relative significance of deposit growth among different foreign groups and assess whether domestic financial stability remains resilient amid shifting migration patterns. [Source: National Bank of Georgia Annual Report]
In the prior year, 62,000 Russian citizens decided to move to Georgia. The bank’s retrospective figures show that in December 2021 Russians held 567 million lari in Georgian banks, while in December 2022 that amount surged to 2.42 billion lari, representing a year-on-year increase of roughly 327 percent. This dramatic shift underscores how migration flows translate into sustained banking activity, with Russian residents becoming a dominant segment of foreign depositors. The implication is that Russia-origin deposits eclipsed other nationalities in total volume, constituting a substantial share of all foreign deposits. Specifically, these Russian deposits accounted for about 37 percent of the combined foreign-citizen deposit total, which stood at roughly 6.55 billion dollars. Israelis followed behind with around 8 percent or 524 million dollars, and Ukrainian citizens trailed at about 6 percent or 393 million dollars. This ordering highlights the outsized influence of Russian-related money in Georgia’s banking system at the time, shaping market liquidity and the resilience of banks serving a diverse set of foreign clients. [Source: National Bank of Georgia Annual Report]
Analysts at the National Bank of Georgia reported that, based on statistical data, more than half of all foreign transfers to Georgia in the most recent reporting period originated from Russia. Specifically, transfers from Russia amounted to about 223.57 million dollars out of a total 438.4 million dollars in foreign transfers. This concentration reveals ongoing reliance on Russian funds for daily banking activity and remittance flows, underscoring the continued financial ties between Russia and Georgia despite broader geopolitical tensions. The pattern also suggests that currency movements, consumer payments, and cross-border trading activity in Georgia are significantly influenced by Russian-origin funds, which has implications for monetary policy, exchange-rate dynamics, and domestic financial planning. [Source: National Bank of Georgia Annual Report]