Ruling party head: “almost double” nominal economic growth “correspondingly” increases employment rate, enterprise turnover

Irakli Kobakhidze, the MP and the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said “Georgia’s having almost double nominal economic upturn” in three years certainly implies a “relevant” growth in everything, including the turnover of enterprises and the employment rate in the country.

In a political debate, after Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili presented the Government's annual report to the Parliament, Kobakhidze responded to the opposition MPs’ statements, which alleged that the Government's claims about economic growth had been “nonsense”.

Kobakhidze said the statistics on economics were presented not only by the Government but by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as other international institutions, and noted the “radical opposition’s” only goal was to spark off “speculations” - “these people do not care about the numbers [real statistics]”, he added.

• Georgia’s poverty rate at “historic low” of 15.6% - Gov't Administration

When the employment rates go up, the poverty rate changes “dramatically”, Kobakhidze emphasised and highlighted the positive trend of decreasing poverty, citing 30 percent of the population had been below the poverty line in 2012, with the figure reduced to 15.6 percent for the time being. It means that “more than half a million people have overcome poverty, but this does not imply the eradication of poverty”, he noted.