Asian Development Bank approves $100mln loan to strengthen Georgia’s fiscal resilience

The Asian Development Bank has approved a $100 million policy-based loan to deepen Georgia’s reforms to fiscal management, capital markets and the country’s pension system, the bank announced on Thursday.

Yevgeniy Zhukov, ADB director general for Central and West Asia, said this was the second sub-programme for Georgia and aimed to help the country complete reforms "that were earlier initiated to further strengthen the government’s capacity to manage fiscal risks, deepen capital markets, and enhance the sustainability of social protection programmes”.

ADB announced the second sub-programme would support policies aimed at improving institutional capacity to manage fiscal risks stemming from disasters triggered by natural hazards and climate change, as well as weak corporate governance in state-owned enterprises. 

“It will strengthen macroeconomic resilience to shocks by reducing exposure to currency and refinancing risks associated with high external debt. It also supports measures to promote regular contribution payments among pension participants as well as the adoption of a framework that incentivises additional voluntary savings”, the bank said.