PM highlights “peace”, “economic growth” as key factors in Georgian Dream party’s “high” rating

Irakli Kobakhidze, the Head of the ruling Georgian Dream party election staff and the Prime Minister of Georgia on Monday said the “high” rating of the party was attributed to two main factors - peace and rapid economic growth, at a presentation of the election programme.

Kobakhidze underscored the party’s commitment to focusing on economic development in the presented programme.

We have achieved a historic maximum in terms of rating of the Georgian Dream party, mainly owing to two factors: first, the maintenance of peace in our country despite significant challenges, and second, the rapid economic growth especially over the past three-four years”, he said.

We are placing special emphasis on economic development, recognising it as crucial for the overall progress of our country, the improvement of living standards for our citizens, and the reinforcement of our foreign policy positions”, the Prime Minister added.

Kobakhidze expressed gratitude to the ruling GD party’s leadership, including its Honorary Chair and Founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Chair Irakli Garibashvili, and members of the party for their contributions to the development and approval of the election programme.

The PM further announced the country’s economy was forecasted to grow to at least ₾130 billion ($47.45) by 2028 and emphasised that maintaining peace was “crucial” for achieving this goal.

Kobakhidze compared the country's economic progress from 2012 to 2024, highlighting the growth in purchasing power and the rise in the global ranking from 109th to 77th place.

In considering how the economy grew in relation to the purchasing power of money, the main criterion used to calculate the social status of a population, it was evident that we faced a challenging situation. In 2012, our economy's purchasing power in dollars was slightly over $10,000, ranking us 109th in the world by this measure. This was quite a difficult economic situation for us”, he said.

In 2024, our purchasing power has already exceeded $25,000. Not only has our economy grown, but we have also experienced much faster economic growth compared to other countries. As a result, we have moved from 109th place to 77th in the global economic rankings”, Kobakhidze added.

Looking ahead to 2028, the Prime Minister expressed “ambitious” expectations, forecasting a per capita purchasing power of over $36,000, which would further improve the country’s global ranking.

In this case, we will move to the 66th place, indicating faster growth compared to other countries”, he said.

Kobakhidze also highlighted the anticipated reduction in the economic gap between Georgia and the leading Western European countries by 2028, expressing confidence in these predictions based on the country's current trajectory and plans.

In 2012, Georgia lagged behind France, Great Britain, and Italy, and about 2.5 times behind Greece in this aspect. We were also behind Bulgaria. All candidate countries [of the European Union membership] except Ukraine and Moldova were ahead of us. Ukraine was slightly behind us, and we had a relatively big difference with Ukraine. In 2028, our lag compared to the leading Western European countries will be less than double by that time”, he said.

If there was a four-fold delay, it will be less than twice the delay compared to the leading developed Western European countries. [Georgia will experience] minimal delay compared to Greece and Bulgaria, and we will be ahead of all candidate countries that have initiated negotiations with the EU”, Kobakhidze added.

The Prime Minister noted this was a promise that the Government could “confidently” give based on its aspirations and plans.