Tbilisi: Georgia's national currency, the lari, on Wednesday plunged to a historic low against the US dollar amid a continuing economic slowdown and shrinking exports, the ex-Soviet country's central bank said.
The lari was trading at 2.53 to the US dollar in the Caucasus country, according to the central bank figures, compared to 1.84 four years ago when the devaluation started.
"The trade deficit is the main factor behind the devaluation," economic analyst Gia Khukhashvili told AFP.
"Georgian exports abroad have decreased by seven percent over the last year while imports grew by 31 percent," he said.
Georgia's trade deficit equalled $4.8 billion (4.5 billion euros) in the first eight months of 2016, according to the national statistics agency Geostat.
"External factors -- such as shrinking remittances in US dollars from migrant workers -- play only a secondary role in the devaluation," Khukhashvili added.
The economic dive in Georgia's major trading partner Russia has had a negative spill-over effect on Georgia, as remittances sent home by migrant workers in Russia have continued to decline.
Georgia's government has long faced criticism from opposition parties over its alleged mishandling of the currency crisis, failure to formulate clear economic policy, introduction of red tape and continuing deficit spending.
Georgia's once booming economy grew by only 2.5 percent in the first 10 months of 2016, according to Geostat -- after expanding by 2.9 percent in 2015, which was the weakest annual growth since 2009.
The lari's previous all-time low was 2.45 against the dollar in March 1999.
