Deputy Economic Minister, National Bank Head hail Govt policy for Fitch’s “positive” financial outlook on Georgia

Georgian Deputy Economy Minister Vakhtang Tsintsadze on Saturday said the revised rating of the financial outlook for Georgia’s fiscal development from “stable” to “positive”, by a global financial ratings firm Fitch, was owing to the Government’s macroeconomic policy, pursued “for years”, including the steps taken in terms of fiscal consolidation, high economic growth indicators and the structural reforms.

Tsintsadze said while the outlooks on the ratings of the Black Sea region and European countries were “mostly unchanged”, the improvement of Georgia’s perspective in this regard was an “important message” to international financial institutions. He added it meant that the country had an “attractive” business environment and the rating company had its confidence in the macroeconomic policy of Georgia. 

• Fitch affirms Georgia at BB credit rating, revises financial outlook from “stable” to “positive”

The head of the National Bank of Georgia Koba Gvenetadze also made comments on the rating report, calling it a “significant and logical assessment” of the Georgian economic team’s policy, amid the “difficult times” of pandemic, post-pandemic and the ongoing war in the Black Sea region.

The report has also “accurately” assessed the steps taken to reduce dollarization, the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves by the National Bank and the reduction of the current account deficit to a “record level”, as well as fiscal consolidation, which has been “absolutely necessary” to make the country's finances sustainable and simultaneously reduce inflation, he said.

I think this is also a logical step towards an improvement of the sovereign rating by one more digit in the future and there will remain one step to the investment rating”, Gvenetadze noted.

In its update on Friday, Fitch Ratings revised the Outlook on Georgia’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating status [the country’s fiscal developments] from “stable” to “positive” and affirmed the IDR at a BB level.