Global Finance evaluated the performance of Natia Turnava, acting President of the National Bank of Georgia, giving her the lowest score among managers of European central banks in their 2024 rating, with only a D grade.
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Global Finance reports that Natia Turnava's appointment as acting President of the National Bank in June 2023 was considered a "highly political" decision. But, "that has been the least of her problems, as she and the NBG have been dragged into Georgia’s increasingly bitter political divisions."
The publication notes that questions were raised regarding Turnava's decision in September 2023 when "when she failed to enforce international sanctions on Georgia’s former prosecutor general Otar Partskhaladze - who has close connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin - claiming that the freezing of a Georgian individual’s assets could be enforced domestically only by a Georgian court."
Global Finance states that in May, Turnava was forced to spend foreign currency to support the Georgian Lari (GEL).
"This was at the height of antigovernment demonstrations against the country’s so-called foreign agents law. According to Fitch Ratings, international reserves dropped from a peak of $5.4 billion in August 2023 to $4.6 billion in June of this year, that decline beginning soon after the start of Turnava’s tenure.
She has done nothing to dispel concerns about her conduct last September, and her closeness to the governing Georgian Dream party has undermined confidence," Global Finance reported.
The publication also notes that in June, Fitch Ratings issued a warning that "perceived risks to the independence of the NBG could erode policy credibility, potentially weakening the capacity of Georgia’s small, open and dollarized economy to respond to external shocks."
Global Finance included the President of the National Bank of Georgia in its ratings for the first time in 2018. From 2018 to 2022, the then-President of the National Bank, Koba Gvenetadze, was recognized among the best managers of central banks five times in a row.
