Banks pay about 7.1% on lari and 1.7% on foreign currency — the gap is the currency risk, priced

The lower pair, 7.1% on lari and 1.7% on foreign currency, is the average across all deposits excluding government money, which includes current accounts paying little or nothing. The higher pair, 9.14% and 2.35%, is specific to term deposits, where you commit the money for a fixed period. Both come from National Bank data reported by GBC, at different dates, and both are correct for what they measure. If you are deciding what to do with cash, the term deposit figure is the one that applies to you, and the lower average is the one that tends to get quoted in general commentary about the country.

The reason a bank pays several times more on lari than on dollars is that it is compensating you for exchange rate risk, not giving you a better deal. If the lari weakens against your home currency by more than the interest difference over the term, the dollar deposit was the better outcome and the lari one lost you money in the currency you actually spend. Nobody can tell you in advance which way that goes. What you can do is be clear about which currency your liabilities are in: if you plan to buy property in Georgia and the price is quoted in dollars, as much of the market still is, then holding lari to earn the higher rate adds a risk you do not need.

A deposit rate is net and certain. A rental yield as usually quoted is gross and uncertain: before you compare them you have to take out management or your own time, voids between tenants, the agency or platform commission, repairs, the tax on the rent and, this year, a higher electricity line if you cover bills. You also have to allow for the fact that a flat cannot be redeemed at par on a month's notice. None of that makes property the worse choice, and capital appreciation is not available on a deposit at all. It does mean that a gross yield only slightly above the lari deposit rate is not actually a premium for the extra risk and work.

The April report was headlined as a decrease: the overall average and the lari rate each fell by a tenth of a point month on month, while the foreign currency rate was roughly flat. That is a small move, but the direction matters more than the size, because deposit rates follow the policy rate and the policy rate follows inflation. If rates continue to drift down, the cash alternative to buying gets weaker and the case for a yielding asset gets relatively stronger, which is the mechanism by which monetary policy ends up in property prices. Watching the monthly review is a cheap way to see that coming before it shows up in asking prices.