Georgian PM: “unprecedented” economic growth of 10.3% “result of reasonable policy”

Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday said the country’s "unprecedented" double-digit economic growth of 10.5 percent in August and 10.3 percent over the first eight months of 2022 was the result of the government's "reasonable policy”.

• Georgian economy grows 10.3% in January-August

The government administration quoted Garibashvili as noting the Georgian economy had been "greatly affected" by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which it shrank by 6.8 percent and led to an “economic downturn, decrease in incomes, impoverishment, and increase in unemployment”. 

Garibashvili said the government had taken on "quite a lot of debt" during the crisis caused by the pandemic, with the figure increasing to more than 60 percent of GDP and the consolidated budget deficit standing at 9.3 percent.

However, we know that the very effective, reasonable steps taken by us very quickly led to the revitalisation of our country's economy, recovery and very strong double-digit economic growth last year. As a reminder, the real growth of the economy in 2021 amounted to 10.4 percent, which means that we were not only able to fully recover the loss suffered in 2020, but also increased the level of the economy by 2.9 percent compared to 2019", Garibashvili said.

• Georgia’s external debt at $22.3 billion

He also added the government also managed to achieve "significant fiscal consolidation" in 2022.

In particular, the consolidated budget deficit decreased to 3.2 percent of GDP, while the government debt rate fell below the 40 percent mark of GDP - the government debt has been reduced", Garibashvili said.

The government reduced its external debt by more than ₾700 million ($247.38 mln), he also observed, adding the country was enjoying an "unprecedentedly" high rate of economic growth against the background of the "current recession in the world".