The Finance Minister, Lasha Khutsishvili, spoke about the final parameters of the draft 2024 budget at the briefing held after the government session. As he noted, the document will be sent to the Parliament in the near future for discussion and approval.
Lasha Khutsishvili said, “As you know, the second budget presentation has already been made in the Parliament. During the second presentation, the 2024 budget and directions increased significantly. The next year’s budget plans for growth, both in social and infrastructure aspects.”
“Pensions and social benefits will increase in 2024. Also, there is significant growth in education and total, up to 600 million GEL is being added to the education sector, both central and local budgets. Also, about 250 million GEL additional was allocated for defence and security. There were significant increases in the direction of development of various economic programs,” said Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili.
According to him, the primary budget parameters remained unchanged in the final version of the budget.
He also noted, “Economic parameters are predicted quite conservatively. Economic growth – 5,2%. The budget deficit is also unchanged and constitutes 2.5%; the government debt index will be around 38%. According to these parameters, the forecast index of GDP will be 86 billion GEL next year, and the total domestic product per capita exceeds $ 8,500.”
As he stated, the majority of the mentioned money is directed to the regions.
“In particular, this will be the increase in the fund of projects implemented in the regions – about 130 million GEL. Also, 15 million GEL was allocated to the victims of the Guria disaster. We have already spent 15 million GEL on this element, which will fundamentally solve the problems that the element has caused in the infrastructure part of the Guria region”, – said Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili.
