Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced that the government has decided not to take the second tranche of an EU loan as 'we are trying to reduce foreign debt'.
We took part of the loan in 2020. The second part of the €75 million euro loan was not a grant and assistance, but a loan. Given that we started reducing our foreign debt this year, it is highly likely that we will no longer need to receive this amount. We are grateful for all the help the EU has given us during the pandemic and in general for everything they are doing for us", said Garibashvili.
In 2020 the EU disbursed a €60 million grant as part of its €75 million Covid-19 Resilience Contract for Georgia to assist in the implementation of the government’s Anti-Crisis Economic Plan.
The overall aim of EU financial support was to help citizens and businesses of Georgia recover from the impact of the pandemic.
The payment followed the EU’s transfer of €100 million in loans for macro-financial assistance on November 25, 2020. Both payments were part of the wider 1.5 billion GEL EU support package for Georgia, which also covered support to the health and social sector and economic recovery.