Georgia has continued to advance in multiple international rankings of different prominent indices over the past few years. Surveys conducted by prestigious international institutions showcase Georgia’s progress in economy, governance, corruption, the rule of law, and the freedom of speech/media. The rankings below represent published data by the following organizations: World Bank, The Heritage Foundation, Moody’s Investors Club, Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings, Transparency International, Reporters Without Borders, the World Justice Project, The International Telecommunications Union, and World Governance Indicators.
ECONOMY
World Bank: Georgia is one of the top-performing countries in implementing business-friendly reforms. According to the recently published World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 (DB) report, Georgia is a leader in Europe and Central Asia (ECA).
For starting a business, Georgia leads alongside New Zealand in having the lowest number of procedures required (1). The same applies for the amount of procedures necessary for registering property, wherein Georgia shares the 1st place with Norway and Portugal, while also being number 1, alongside Qatar, for the least time required for said procedure.
The Heritage Foundation: The Business Freedom rankings 2019 places Georgia as the 16th most economically free in the world and the 8th most open in Europe, which demonstrates Georgia’s sound fiscal health and macroeconomic resilience.
Fitch Ratings: Fitch has upgraded Georgia’s rating to ‘BB’ with a stable outlook from ‘BB-.’ Fitch explained that the Georgian economy had proved resilient to adverse developments in 2018: “Economic growth remained robust, the currency was relatively stable, and the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) built reserves despite a severe economic shock in Turkey and heightened sanctions risk in Russia,” Fitch said in a release on February 22. Further highlighting Georgia’s exceptional accomplishment, Georgia was the only country in the region to move up in Fitch’s rating.
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings: S&P increased its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the Government of Georgia to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-.’ It also affirmed the short-term ratings at ‘B.’ The outlook is stable. “Georgia has maintained comparatively high growth rates over the past few years, even in a challenging external environment,” S&P reported.
GOVERNANCE, CORRUPTION, MEDIA FREEDOM, CYBERSECURITY
World Governance Dataset: World Bank recently released the World Governance Indicators Dataset (WGI 2018), summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprises, citizens, and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. Georgia has secured a spot in Europe’s top 20 performers in four of five categories, including Rule of Law, Control of Corruption, Regulatory Quality, Government Effectiveness, Voice and Accountability. Georgia’s position in the top 25% of European countries highlights the successful governance reforms of Georgia in the past few years, as the country has advanced in all of the categories since 2012.
Transparency International: The 2018 Freedom from Corruption index also demonstrates improvement for Georgia. Georgia reached 41st place among 190 countries in Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) (this is a jump of 24 positions since 2011).
Reporters Without Borders: Press Freedom Index 2019 showcases the continuous progress of the pluralist media environment in Georgia. This year’s index puts Georgia at 60th place — a one-spot improvement since 2018 and 40-point jump since 2013.
International Telecommunication Union: Georgia is ranked 9th in Europe and 18th in the world in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2018, which is a composite index produced by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to measure the commitment of its 194 member states to cybersecurity to raise cybersecurity awareness.
FREEDOM HOUSE: A new report by the Freedom House highlight Georgia’s progress in internet freedom. In Freedom on the Net 2019 index, Georgia ranks 10th among 65 countries.
The index report highlights the Georgian government’s expanded e-government services, increased internet penetration, and praises the new 2017 October constitution that includes free access to and use of the internet as a fundamental right.
