Georgia’s economic growth slowed to 1.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013, according to preliminary figures released by the state statistics office, Geostat, on April 30.

According to preliminary data real GDP grew 2.9% y/y in January, slowing down to 2.1% in February and 0.2% in March.

Geostat said preliminary figures are subject to revision after updated data from agriculture and some other sectors of economy become available.

2013 Q1 growth of 1.7% is down from the 2.8% y/y expansion in the last three months of 2012.

According to preliminary data Georgia’s economy grew 6.1% y/y in 2012 with growth making 6.7% in the first quarter of 2012, increasing to 8.2% in the second quarter and going down to 7.5% in the third quarter.