Saakashvili: Georgia’s Economy to Grow 7%
President Saakashvili said Georgia’s economic growth forecast should be revised upwards as the country was expecting 7% growth this year.
2011 economic growth forecast is currently set at 5.5%; the same figure is set in the draft of state budget for the next year.
Georgia’s 2011 second quarter real GDP growth slowed to 4.7% year-on-year, after an increase of 5.8% in the previous three months. Real GDP growth in the first half of this year was 5.2%. The growth was 6.6% in the same period of last year.
“This year our economy will have almost 7% growth, while Turkey had to revise two-fold downward, Russia two- or three-fold their economic growth forecast… Our economy is growing contrary to negative trends in the rest of the world,” Saakashvili said during a televised meeting with a group of public officials in his residence on October 19.
“Why our [economy] is increasing? Because we have a competitive advantage, which others do not have – that is first and foremost good state apparatus and no corruption,” he said.
Saakashvili added, that the Georgian state institutions were “transparent and efficient,” which should become “irreversible” and “the entire political life in Georgia should be clean, transparent, based on rules.” He also said, that his government was determined to continue reforms.