Georgia Doubles Defense Spending

According to the draft amendments to the state budget, presented by the government to the Parliament for consideration, the Defense Ministry will receive an additional 175 million Lari (approximately USD 95.1 million) in 2005. As a result, defense spending will amount to a total of 301 million Lari (approximately USD 163.5 million) this year. 

?Such a significant increase in the defense funding was a pleasant surprise for us. It will help us boost development of the Georgian army,? Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security Givi Targamadze said on March 29.

The increase in defense spending is part of an overall increase in budgetary expenditures. The draft amendments to the state budget envisage an increase in expenditures by 452 million Lari (approximately USD 245.6 million). This increase in budgetary revenues is mainly anticipated as a result of incomes received from the privatization process.

Currently, the budgetary expenditures for 2005 are set at 2.2 billion Lari (approximately USD 1.2 billion) and revenues at 1.9 billion Lari (approximately USD 1 billion).

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)