Georgia joins economic and financial dialogue with EU for first time as candidate country

Georgia is participating in the economic and financial dialogue between the European Union and its membership candidate countries for the first time in the capacity, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.

The body explained the dialogue was a tool to prepare candidate countries for integration into the European Semester, the bloc’s framework for the coordination and monitoring of economic and social policies.

Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili and Acting Governor of the National Bank, Natia Turnava, are participating in a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the EU in Brussels. 

Khutsishvili said the meeting was discussing the Economic Reform Programme presented by Georgia to the European Commission for the first time after obtaining the status of a membership candidate country.

• European, Georgian central banks meet as country submits first Economic Reform Programme as EU candidate

Georgia has a rather successful, outstanding position not only in relation to candidate countries, but also in relation to EU [member] countries. Georgia is distinguished by a high rate of economic growth, and it is also important that the rate of inflation this year is one of the lowest among the candidate countries of the EU”, Khutsishvili said.

The country has very quickly achieved macroeconomic stability, both in reducing the budget deficit and external debt. The meeting also discussed ongoing structural reforms in Georgia, which are expected to contribute to sustainable economic growth in the future”, he added.

Speaking at the event, Turnava noted the “proactive adjustment” of monetary policy helped to maintain price stability in the country, while “timely and sufficiently tightened monetary policy” had reduced inflationary expectations.

Since the beginning of 2023, the economy of Georgia has maintained a rate much lower than the target inflation. In the near term, inflation will be lower than the target and in the medium term, it will gradually stabilise to about three percent”, she said.

The dialogue featured finance ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and presidents of national banks, as well as representatives of the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

The Ministry said the meeting would be followed by summaries of the evaluation of the Economic Reforms Programme prepared by Georgia and other candidate countries. Based on this evaluation, recommendations for further updating of medium-term macroeconomic and fiscal plans will be provided.