The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has cut its 2020 economic growth forecasts for Georgia, but expects a recovery next year.

According to the EBRD, Georgia’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to fall -5.5% in 2020, before rebounding to around 5.5% in 2021, the EBRD said, adding that the economy would be severely impacted as transport restrictions hit travel and tourism.

“Recovery would depend on a “gradual relaxation of domestic measures to contain the virus and a return to normality during the second half of the year”, the bank said in a regional economic prospects report.