Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili gave a speech at the UN Assembly in New York on September 22nd, where he spoke about Georgia’s economic perspectives.
Kvirikashvili said the government will reach the targeted 5% growth and that in the upcoming years, Georgia’s growth will rise to “7% and higher.”
“To increase incentives to invest in Georgia, we have implemented a bold taxation reform, which includes abolishing the profit tax on undistributed earnings and liberalizing the tax administration system. We anticipate up to 5% economic growth this year, rising to 7% and higher in the coming years,” Kvirikashvili stated.
This was the first time the prime minister gave promises of 7% growth.
The forecast of financial institutions is much lower. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have lowered their forecast for Georgia’s 2017 economic growth from 5.2% to 3.5%, whereas the long-term growth forecast does not exceed 5.5%.
International Monetary Fund growth forecast for Georgia, 2017-2022:
2017 - 3.5%
2018 - 4%
2019 - 4.5%
2020 - 5%
2021 - 5.5%
2022 - 5.5%
Geostat has counted Georgia’s growth data of the first seven months of 2017. The estimated real GDP growth for the first seven months of 2017 amounted to 4.4 percent y/y, which is 0.6% lower than the 5% forecasted by the Government of Georgia.
In 2016, economic growth reached 2.8%, when the government aimed to achieve 2.7% growth.
Georgia's economic growth has been an average of 6.1% since 2010, however, from 2013 the growth rate shrunk to 3.3% instead of the forecasted 6%. In 2014, the government had an estimated 5% economic growth, but because of deteriorating economic indicators, growth amounted to 4.6%. In 2015, economic growth was 2.8%, which was lower than the estimates by 0.8%.