2008 Budget Surplus of GEL 275,000 Planned – PM
The 2008 state budget will have a GEL 275,000 surplus, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told his cabinet colleagues on December 19.
?I want to congratulate you, despite a fall-off in investments in the last couple of months, on maintaining a budget surplus, even if it is a symbolic one,? the prime minister said. ?The budget has been developed in accordance with all international standards, apart from IMF monetary standards. The draft which is now being discussed by the cabinet envisages a GEL 275,000 surplus. It is, as far as I know, the first budget surplus in recent Georgian history.?
He also confirmed that social programs recently unveiled by the authorities would be reflected in the draft budget. ?These programs are all envisaged in the budget; we don?t make imaginary or impossible promises,? Gurgenidze said.
The prime minister on December 17 said that spending on social programs would be increased by ?about GEL 400 million? next year. Earlier he also indicated that defense spending cuts were on the cards.
Precise details and targets for the 2008 budget are still unknown.
Today?s announcement is in keeping with a pledge made by the prime minister in Parliament on November 22 to have a budget surplus by 2009.
?Georgia has no alternative to a surplus. Stable development would be unimaginable without it,? he told lawmakers at the time.
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