Georgia, Tbilisi, 29 February / Trend corr. N. Kirtskhalia/ The purpose of the visit of International Monetary Fund's (IMF) delegation to Georgia is to appraise the country's economic situation of 2007 and to get familiarized with the country's plans for this year. The delegation launched its activities at the today's meeting, with the acting President of the National Bank of Georgia David Amaglobeli.
The IMF delegation is led by David Owen- the IMF senior advisor for the Middle East and Central Asia.
The Fund positively assessed the economic activities of 2007, Amaglobeli said.
According to him, last year Georgia experienced a record economic growth, especially in the terms of investment attraction, which negatively affected the inflation.
"We informed the delegation about the events expected to take place, including the inflation targeting and the Fund approved of for that," he said.
Amaglobeli commented on how much IMF approves of the Bill on Global Competitiveness which restricts the freedom of the National Bank.
According to him, the last item on bank's responsibility to the Government has been excluded from the final draft.
"At present, the bank contended itself with the parliament's approval of the money-and-credit policy," Amaglobeli said and added that the legislative body simply hears the report of the bank, but does not approve it in line with the final draft.
While the responsibility of the bank for inflation is growing, it needs more freedom, the acting director of National Bank of Azerbaijan said.
Owen, the head of the IMF delegation, also commented on the independence of the National Bank. He will hold talks with the government representatives on new project and the results of the week will be presented in the final press conference, he said in his interview with the journalists.
Owen said that he got familiar with the activities of the Bank and government regarding the drop in inflation and expressed his wish that every effort would be made to lower that figure. "Hopefully, the inflation pressure will be low," he said.
In this stage, the current activities of Georgian fund are of consultative character. It will last until Georgia becomes the member of the Fund and the mission will visit the country twice a year accordingly.
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