Irakli Kovzanadze, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament, explains the reasons for economic growth. According to him, today tourism is one of the important factors in both economic growth and the exchange rate of the GEL.
"For the 5 months of 2022, the economic growth is more than 11%. These are good figures, but it is due to the increased demand. We have an increase in demand in all directions. I emphasize that this is due to the fact that we have made the right reforms, and you know what reforms we have made.
Exports have increased significantly, tourism is recovering at a higher rate than we have planned, there has been almost 90% recovery in the month of May, we received 1.2 billion from tourism in 6 months, which is very important. Tourism has become a factor determining the exchange rate of GEL, besides there are remittances, we have seen that it has increased incredibly.
I do not rule out that the budget will come in the fall, in terms of increase, and there are options to be 7% and higher. However, I would be more cautious in this regard, as it is their prerogative.
The Russia-Ukraine war is such a factor that it is impossible to determine now what will happen in 1-1.5 years," said Irakli Kovzanadze.
In June 2022, 387,781 international visitors visited Georgia, which is 164% more than the previous year, although this flow of visitors is 47% less compared to the pre-pandemic period, which means that the number of tourists has recovered to 53% of 2019.
The real economic growth of Georgia in 5 months of 2022 amounted to 11.2%.
