PM Garibashvili: state economy increased, decision on cost of medication to be made this week
Garibashvili underscored that nominal GDP has also ‘increased significantly,’ amounting to 59.6 billion GEL, instead of the originally forecasted 53.4 billion GEL. Photo: Government of Georgia.
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Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated earlier today that the Georgian government has ‘significantly improved key fiscal parameters’ due to rapid economic recovery, adding that the Georgian government will make a decision this week which will ‘significantly reduce the cost of medicines.’
Garibashvili said work on the pharmaceutical market report is complete, stating that ‘we will also work on legislation that will further improve the situation in this regard.’
We are also going to open the Turkish market, to import high-quality medicines from Turkey, which, by our forecast, will reduce the cost of medicines,” said Garibashvili
He also noted that the government’s debt was reduced to 50% instead of the planned 60.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding that Georgia achieved double-digit economic growth in 2021.
He emphasised that the 2021 budget was planned in difficult conditions, given the economy and pandemic, stating that ‘expectations for an economic recovery in 2021 were minimal.’
Based on 11-month preliminary data, economic growth is 10.7%. Overall, the annual growth rate is also expected at 10.7%, which is 2.5 times higher than originally projected,” stated Garibashvili.
He underscored that nominal GDP has also ‘increased significantly,’ amounting to 59.6 billion GEL, instead of the originally forecasted 53.4 billion GEL.
Other fiscal indicators on which the PM focused were:
- Export growth for the last eleven months was 26.7%, including local export growing by 28.7%
- Revenues from tourism increased by 112% year-on-year
- The number of money transfers increased by 25.4% in the first 11 months
- The deficit relative to GDP improved by 2.1% in the three quarters of 2021
Overall, we expect that the current account deficit will decrease to 10.5% in 2021, and in the medium term, return to 5%,” Garibashvili said.
Garibashvili also focused on the country’s social policy, stating that the government has already begun ‘working on the creation of public jobs.’
The PM announced in November 2021 an initiative which aims to provide jobs for socially vulnerable citizens who are fit for work instead of social assistance.
The GDP in Georgia increased by 12% in November 2021 year-on-year, and by 10.7% in January-November of this year.