BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia's GDP should increase by 7.7 percent this year and its size should reach 57.2 billion lari ($18.1 billion), said Minister of Finance Lasha Khutsishvili, Trend reports via Georgian media.
Minister presented the draft budget adjustment for 2021.
According to him, according to the updated forecast,
At current prices in 2020, the country’s gross domestic product was 49.4 billion lari ($15.6 billion), thus increasing the nominal GDP size by 7.8 billion lari ($2.4 billion), or 16 percent. The real increase in this should be 7.7 percent. This means that against the background of high inflation, the country's GDP deflator will also increase.
According to the minister this year's budget deficit will be reduced from 7.5 percent to 6.9 percent. The volume of public debt decreases from 60 percent to 54.6 percent.
The government expects tax revenues to increase by 720 million lari ($228.4 million) this year, while the overall expenditure part of the budget will increase by 1.1 billion lari ($348.9 million) to 19.5 billion lari ($6.1 billion). According to individual ministries, the largest amount will be added to the Ministries of Health and Agriculture.
The increase in funding for specific ministries and programs is as follows:
• Additional 446 million lari ($141.5 million) is spent on healthcare;
• Some 75 million lari ($23.7 million) will be spent on doubling child social assistance;
• Additional 35 million lari ($11.1 million) will be spent on IDP accommodation;
• Additional 177 million lari ($56.1 million) will be allocated for agricultural programs;
• Additional 55 million lari ($17.4 million) will be allocated to support the economy;
• An additional 220 million lari ($69.7 million) will be spent on improving municipal infrastructure;
• Education funding increases by 40 million lari ($12.6 million);
• Funding for sports will increase by 30 million lari ($9.5 million);
• The budget of the Ministry of Defense will be increased by 30 million lari.
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