Ruling party head: GDP per capita reaching $12,000 by 2028 would mean poverty “disappearing”

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday said the domestic gross domestic product per capita would exceed $12,000 by 2028 according to the forecast by the International Monetary Fund, with the development meaning that “poverty will almost disappear” across the country. 

The main thing for us is to continue to take care of the development of the country. It should be the main agenda. We have a very good trend in the economy. The World Bank, the IMF are telling us that our economy was $16 billion at the beginning of 2021 and became $30 billion at the end of this year. We have not had such a jump in the economy before”, Kobakhidze told local Imedi TV.

He added the Government had gone through “difficult processes economically” since it came in power in 2012.

There were two crises. The first crisis was connected to the first war in Ukraine [in 2014]. There was a currency crisis in 2015-2016 and it caused serious economic and social problems. Then there was the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused the economic downturn, inflation and other problems”, he said.

Kobakhidze added the crises meant the country did not reach “favourable” economic indicators earlier, but added the last three years had been “exceptional” from the point of view. 

The National Statistics Office of Georgia on Friday said the estimated real GDP growth rate had amounted to 5.9 percent year-over-year in November, while the average real GDP growth between January-November equalled 6.9 percent.