Economy Minister: claims of economy heading towards crisis “deliberate attempt” to “undermine country’s interests”

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili on Monday said claims by opponents on the domestic economy heading towards a crisis were a “deliberate attempt” to “undermine the country’s interests”.

During the last week we heard a number of statements from our opponents [...] that the economy of Georgia would enter into a crisis and the process of the law on transparency of foreign influence would have a negative impact on the economy”, Davitashvili said in reference to the newly adopted controversial law.

Unfortunately, it is not new when our opponents try to attack everything, and in this case this is not just a political process, here is a deliberate process to harm the interests of their own country, including by deliberate disinformation aimed at changing the sentiments of investors, which subsequently affects economic processes”, he added.

The Minister claimed the country’s banking and financial systems, as well as economic processes, were “stable”.

Financial institutions are stable, and it is anticipated that both the exchange rate and the financial system will remain stable”, he said.

Davitashvili still said the claims “always have a negative effect on investors” and could impact stock prices. 

Considering that the fundamentals of our economy are very healthy, and that there is no objective basis for these concerns, it is simply an attempt to cause short-term panic. The drop in stock prices was short-lived and they have since stabilised”, he said.

The Economy Minister expressed confidence that investors’ “trust in Georgian companies” would be “restored in the long term”. 

Similarly, attempts to incite panic in domestic economic processes, such as encouraging the withdrawal of deposits, are considered harmful”, he said.

Davitashvili also claimed the alleged actions went “beyond the limits of opposition, correctness and morality”.

The recently adopted law calls for the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

Its approval by the Parliament has been met by public protests and criticism by some of Georgia's foreign partners.