Summary 

The process of transition from Georgia’s administrative-dictatorial system to market economy was carried out dramatically and its consequences are not completely overcome after the period of nearly three decades. As of 2018, Georgia is listed among those three Post-Soviet countries (together with Ukraine and Moldova) where economy has not reached the 1989 level of the production of GDP. Furthermore, from amongst the 15 Post-Soviet countries, Georgia occupies the first place in terms of decrease of the general quantity of population during the last 30 years (compared to 1989 the number reduced by 32%). Because of the fact that during the mentioned period the quantity of the population decreased more than the GDP of the country (-15%), the level of the GDP calculated in terms of per capita prices since 2014 exceeds the same indicator of 1989. In essence, the excess of the average parameter for the improvement of the population’s economic condition, compared to the parameter of the pre-reform (1989) period, has been achieved not due to economic growth but at the expense of the reduction of the population’s quantity. Moreover, social differentiation of the population in modern Georgia, according to the current revenues (decile quotient = 15.4) significantly exceeds not only the pre-reform period (4.5: 1), but also the analogous parameter of all the other Post-Soviet countries.

As of 2018, the incomes of the poorest 1/3 of the Georgian population in per capita prices perceivably (approximately by 20%) lag behind the incomes of the same category in 1989. The distinction between the incomes of the poorest 10-10 percent of the present time and 30 years before is still more noticeable – 2.5 times and more. “On the other hand”, the incomes of the present richest 10 percent per capita exceeds 2 times and more the incomes of the richest 10 percent of the previous times.