Deputy Economy Minister says Georgia expected to record “double-digit” growth

Mikheil Dundua, Georgian Deputy Finance Minister, on Saturday told TV Imedi the Government was expecting to see a “double-digit” growth this year based on four-month data of related figures.

Dundua said the growth indicator for the first quarter of the year had been at nine percent on average, while the figure for April was nearly 12 percent, indicating an “upward trend” in preliminary data.

He said growth indicators for this year had accelerated and were higher than predicted, adding it was possible that “even higher” numbers could be recorded.

Accordingly, in this case, the optimistic figure of 6-7 percent is the approach on which the budgetary process can be based, although it is not ruled out that a higher figure will be recorded and we will have a very high economic growth this year, as it was in previous years”, he said.

The Ministry is “conservatively and cautiously” considering indicators of growth regarding the budget policy’s implementation, he added, noting a rating by Atlantic Council, an American international affairs think-tank, on Friday ranked Georgia among top “free” countries based on its governance in its 2024 Atlas of Freedom and Prosperity.

The Deputy Minister said the authors of the study had made an “interesting conclusion” that freedom in the world was “methodically improving slowly”, with two states, Georgia and Croatia, standing out with “leap-like progress”.

Since 2012, over 10 years, Georgia has made a 23-step advancement in the ranking, and according to these improvements, is seventh in the world, second in Eurasia and first in Europe. By all factors, by all indicators, by all comments, Georgia is distinguished as a reformer, as a freedom-improving country”, he said.

The ranking includes an analysis of the 2023 Freedom Index, which categorises 164 countries and territories into four groups: free, mostly free, mostly unfree and unfree, with Georgia listed as leading in Europe in long-term freedom rating progress since 2012.

The country is among the 45 countries in the world that have been granted the status of the highest category.

In the ranking of freedom, Georgia is the only candidate country of the European Union to be given the highest category status, and is placed ahead of Poland, Hungary, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Turkey and all EU candidate states, while being placed fourth among post-Soviet countries after the Baltic states.

With long-term improvement in the freedom rating position over the last decade, Georgia ranks sixth in the world, second on the Eurasian continent and first in Europe. During the period, the rating position of the country has improved by 23 steps, from 68th to 45th.