Finance Minister: September Economic Indicators Show Very Positive Trend

"We see a very positive trend in the economic indicators of September," stated the Minister of Finance Ivane Machavariani at a briefing after the meeting of the Inter-Agency Coordination Council.

He said that compared to the same period last year, there was a decrease of -0.7%.

"It means that we have almost the same economic activities in September as we had last year. At the same time, we must keep in mind that based on various estimates, the share of tourism in our economy is about 9-11%, and we have lacked this data.

"Still, actually, we are at last year’s level. What does this mean - we have given the economy a serious fiscal stimulus this year, increasing the budget deficit by 8.5%.

"Based on this stimulus, there was partial compensation for the economic loss caused by the decline in tourism. This proves once again that the fiscal stimulus is working and that our economic policy and response to the crisis of 2020 was adequate," said Finance Minister.

As he noted, this assessment is confirmed by international partners, including the International Monetary Fund.

"I will refer to the recent economic forecast of the International Monetary Fund, where the Fund notes that in 2021-2025, there is an expectation that the Georgian economy will grow at the highest rate compared to other countries in the region, with almost 5%. The region includes Europe, the Middle East, the South Caucasus and the CIS countries. That is, we expect that we will have the highest growth in 4-5 years, which means that the recovery process will be the fastest," said Machavariani.

As he noted, along with September, there is also pretty good activity in October, which needs to be maintained.