Georgia: Economic growth for 2022 will be 10% instead of 8.5%, says FM Khutsishvili

Tbilisi: The Minister of Finance of Georgia, Lasha Khutsishvili, spoke at the briefing held after the end of the government session, about the main directions of the final draft of the 2023 budget, which will be presented to the Parliament of Georgia on November 30. According to him, the current forecast of economic growth for 2022 has become more accurate and will be 10% instead of 8.5%.

“This is an indicator of growth that is also shared by international financial organizations.” Among them, the International Monetary Fund has predicted economic growth of about 10% this year.

 According to the proposed changes, the planned tax revenue of the combined budget for 2023 is growing by about 390 million GEL. In addition, the planned indicators of loan repayment and other revenues are increasing, by about 270 million GEL. 

This will be the resource that will be allocated additionally in the 2023 budget. “In total, 660 million GEL and accordingly the spending part of the budget will increase by the same amount, which will reach 25 billion GEL”, – said the Minister of Finance, Lasha Khutsishvili. He spoke in detail about the priorities for which additional financial resources will be directed.

“As you know, in 2013 the program of helping children in socially vulnerable families was launched for the first time. There was no program like this before. At the first stage, it was 10 GEL, then in the last 2 years the aid increased from 50 GEL to 150 GEL. 

“Now, we have made a decision and from the first of July of the next year, we will increase children’s support by another 50 GEL and the support per child will be 200 GEL. For this purpose, we will allocate more than 65 million GEL. 

In addition, the changes will be brought to maternity leave. As a reminder, we have already seen a rise in school teachers’ numbers and from next year school teachers will receive full pay during maternity leave. We also decided to double the aid for private sector employees during maternity leave and from January 1st instead of 1000 GEL, this amount will be determined by 2000 GEL”, said Lasha Khutsishvili.

As he noted, in 2023 more than 150 million GEL will be allocated to financing education, within the framework of which another important program will be launched and 100 million GEL will allocated to construction and rehabilitation of kindergartens in municipalities For the share. 

In addition, more than 30 million GEL will be allocated to setting up computer laboratories in schools.

One more direction the Minister focused on is tourism. According to him, tourism is one of the sectors that will still be an important contributor to Georgia’s economic growth in the coming years, due to the fact that in quantitative cuts, we have only recovered 60% compared to 2019.

“As a result, next year 200 million GEL will be allocated for the establishment of new tourist locations and the development of existing ones.” This will help create new places, attractions in the country that will serve the tourism sector. 

Also, 170 million GEL will be allocated to finance infrastructural projects in Tbilisi. Additional 30 million GEL will be allocated for projects of the Ministry of Infrastructure.

 Additional allocation of 55 million GEL for culture and sports, of which 25 million GEL will be allocated for the start of the construction of infrastructure needed for hosting the Winter Youth Olympics scheduled in 2025, as well as with the second presentation “Comparatively financing will increase for sports federations”, – said the Minister of Finance, Lasha Khutsishvili.

According to him, more than 35 million GEL will be allocated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Border Infrastructure, additional 10 million GEL will all be allocated for environmental protection and agriculture programs, and 20 million GEL will also be allocated. Willing to partial purchase of equipment needed for conducting electronic elections.