On 28 December 2015, at the extraordinary session of the Parliament of Georgia, a member of the Parliamentary Minority, Zurab Melikishvili, made particular emphasis upon Georgia’s economic indicators, including the drop in foreign direct investments. Mr Melikishvili stated: "The amount of investments dropped by 17% in the first three quarters of 2015. Investments have dropped in the field of agriculture. Additionally, investments decreased in energy as well. The first quarter of 2015 ended with -51% and the second quarter with -88%."

FactCheck

verified the accuracy of Zurab Melikishvili’s statement.

According to the preliminary data

of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the total amount of foreign direct investments in Georgia during the first three quarters of 2015 amounted to USD 1,019 million which is 17% less as compared to the amount of investments made in the previous year.

Graph 1:

 Foreign Direct Investments in 2013-2015 (by quarters, USD million)

According to the data of the first three quarters of 2015, the biggest amount of foreign direct investments, at USD 571 million, was made in the field of transport and communications. The construction sector ranks second in terms of attracting foreign direct investments with USD 112 million and the financial sector is third with USD 110 million.

According to the data of the first three quarters of 2015, USD 21 million was invested in the field of agriculture whilst this amount was USD 11 million in the same period of 2014. Therefore, according to the data of the first three quarters of 2015, the amount of investments in agriculture increased by 91%.

In regard to the field of energy, USD 42 million was invested therein according to the data of the first three quarters of 2015. USD 153 million was invested in energy in the same period of 2014. The amount of foreign direct investments in the field of energy dropped by 52% in the first quarter, by 88.6% in the second quarter and by 56.8% in the third quarter of 2015. In total, investments in energy decreased by 72.5% in 2015. Of note is that the amount of investments in the field of energy decreased in 2014 (by 22%) as well. In the period of 2011-2012, the largest investments were made in the energy field. This trend was kept in place throughout 2013, too, but energy moved to the fourth place in 2014 and down to the sixth place in the first three quarters of 2015. FactCheck has already written

about the dwindling amount of investments in the field of energy and the worsening of the situation.

Conclusion

According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the amount of foreign direct investments dropped by 17% in the first three quarters of 2015 as compared to the same period of the previous year.

According to the data of the first three quarters of 2015, investments in the field of agriculture rose by 91% instead of decreasing as stated by the MP.

In regard to the energy field, it was a leader in terms of attracting foreign direct investments in 2011-2013. The situation worsened in 2014 and 2015 was even less successful. According to the first three quarters of 2015, the amount of foreign direct investments in the energy field dropped by 72.5%.

Therefore, FactCheck concludes that Zurab Melikishvili’s statement is MOSTLY TRUE.