The Minister of Finance Ivane Machavariani spoke in detail about the negative impact of the pandemic on the country's fiscal indicators.
According to him, the loss of tax revenues in the budget will amount to 2, 2 billion GEL in 2020-2021, tax benefits for business support and job creation - more than 600.0 million GEL, funding for health and anti-crisis measures – 4,3 billion GEL.
"All this exceeded 7,1 billion GEL in total, which was a significant pressure on our fiscal indicators. As a result, the budget deficit increased to 9.1 percent of GDP in 2020 and in 2021 it became impossible to reduce it to below 7.6 percent. As the deficit widens, the government debt-to-GDP ratio has risen to more than 60 percent by 2021. Now, I think, it is clear to everyone under what conditions we have to plan the 2021 budget", - said the Minister of Finance Ivane Machavariani.
