Finance Minister Lays Out Draft Budget Priorities
Annual inflation by the end of this month is expected to be 8% “or maybe even lower,” Nika Gilauri, the finance minister, told lawmaker on December 18, while presenting a draft 2009 state budget.
He said that targeted inflation rate, according to the draft budget for the next year, was 7%. The draft budget forecasts 4% GDP growth next year, expected to amount total of GEL 21.5 billion.
He said that the proposed draft budget’s key priorities were “giving stimulus to the economy,” which he said was currently under double burden of the August war and the world financial crisis, and to boost social assistance programs.
Gilauri said that the government has almost doubled social and health care funding from GEL 813 million since 2006.
He also said that the government was further reducing taxes starting from 2009 and was negotiating free trade agreements with partners – in particular with the United States and EU – to help create favorable conditions for the export of goods from Georgia.
“Free trade agreement with the United States has become realistic,” Gilauri told near-empty chamber of the Parliament. “It will also help to attract companies from neighboring countries, because they will become encouraged to establish enterprises here in Georgia and export their products into the United States from Georgia. So one of the reasons behind this free trade agreement is also to create kind of a window in Georgia through which it will be easier to export goods into the U.S.”
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