Georgia grew 7.8 percent in the first half of 2026 — but construction contributed nothing and real estate's share halved

Real GDP grew 7.8 percent in the first half of 2026, against 8.6 percent in the same period of 2025, a shade below the monthly preliminary estimates. Nominal growth was around 11 percent. Services accounted for roughly 96 percent of the real increase, and information and communications technology alone made up about 29 percent of real growth at basic prices — more than twice the contribution of the next-largest sector. That is a strong economy, but it is an economy being carried by desks and data centres rather than by sites and cranes.

Both construction and agriculture made negative contributions to real growth in the half-year, and real estate's contribution fell by more than half compared with a year earlier. These are contribution figures rather than sector growth rates, so they measure how much each sector added to the national total, not whether every firm in it shrank. Still, the direction is unambiguous: the part of the economy that builds and sells buildings is no longer pulling the country forward. Developers who budgeted on the assumption that a fast-growing economy means a fast-growing construction sector were working from a correlation that has broken.

Exports rose 22.1 percent in January to August, with oil products accounting for a large part of the increase, while vehicle re-exports fell 22 percent. Fast money transfers into the country fell 8.2 percent year on year in August, and transfers from Russia dropped sharply month on month after European Union sanctions hit the Zolotaya Korona payment system. Remittances are not rent, but in Georgia the two have been linked at the lower end of the rental market for years. A landlord in that segment should watch this line rather than the GDP headline.

A 7.8 percent economy is a good argument for Georgia in general and a weak argument for Georgian construction in particular, and sales material that uses the first to sell the second is doing something the data does not support. If you are weighing a purchase, the useful question is which part of this growth touches your asset: an ICT-led expansion fills offices and good-quality city rentals, and does comparatively little for a resort studio bought on a payment plan. The figures here are contributions to growth published by Georgia Today from Geostat national accounts and a TBC Capital macro update, and the underlying series is worth reading directly before any decision rests on it.