A lari deposit paid 9.14% while a dollar one paid 2.35% — the gap is a currency bet, not free money

On National Bank data for February 2026, the average annual weighted market rate on term deposits was 7.17%. Split by currency, lari deposits paid 9.14% and foreign-currency deposits 2.35%. That spread is not a bank being generous with lari; it is the price of holding a smaller currency, and it moves with the policy rate and with how confident savers feel about the exchange rate.

Sales material often compares a rental yield to "what the bank pays" without saying which bank rate. If your rent is collected in lari and your alternative is a lari deposit, the honest benchmark is the higher figure — and a flat has to clear it after management, vacancy, repairs and tax to be worth the trouble. If you think in dollars or euros and would otherwise hold a foreign-currency deposit, the bar is far lower, but then your rental income carries the currency risk the deposit avoided.

A near-seven-point gap between local and foreign currency savings is the market's own estimate of currency and country risk. Read alongside a policy rate held at 8.25% and inflation running above target, it describes an economy where money is expensive and savers are being paid well to stay in lari. For a buyer that cuts both ways: financing is dear, but so is the return you can get without buying anything at all.

These are February 2026 figures, published in March, and deposit rates move. The National Bank publishes effective deposit rates on its own site, and local financial press ranks banks by what they are actually offering, so this is checkable in a few minutes rather than something to take on trust from a brochure. If a projection you are shown uses a deposit rate as the comparison, ask which month it came from.