The Finance Minister, Lasha Khutsishvili reported to the Parliament within the Ministerial Hour.
At the beginning of his report, the Minister noted that he has already accepted the parliamentary podium in various formats for the last two months and the greater part of his report is already introduced to the Parliament and society.
Speaking about the activity of the Ministry, the reporter concentrated on the achieved progress and further plans. He overviewed the economic growth, inflation rate, foreign sector and key directions of the economic policy, as well as the budget implementation indices and the fiscal parameters.
In his report, the Minister accentuated the changes undertaken in the Ministry within the public finance management reform and introduced new approaches, noting that the public finance management strategy for 2023-2026 was endorsed last year, which is based on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment for 2022.
“Based on the assessment, we enjoy the highest assessment in 20 out of 31 indicators. At that, Georgia has the best assessment among 59 countries estimated according to PEFA methods. It is noteworthy that the strategy is oriented to the improvement of public finance management not only at the central but on the municipal levels. According to the updated budget transparency index, Georgia not only maintained its place among the most transparent countries but manifested further progress and reached the first place in the global rating among 120 countries”.
According to him, deriving from the EU candidate status, Georgia has for the first time joined the preparations of the average-term program of economic reforms according to the methods developed by the EU for the candidate states and submitted the “Economic Reforms Program for 2024-2026” to the European Commission within the established term.
“The document is an average-term expenditure planning instrument for the candidate states and this is the direction that we intend to further work in 2024 along with the complete integration of the necessary processes into the budgetary cycle calendar. According to the analysis of the last macroeconomic parameters of Georgia and the EU member and candidate states, Georgia is nearly as progressed in a number of directions to the hereof states and/or is in leading positions according to the high economic growth, low inflation rate, reduced state debt and budget deficit and rapid restoration of the macroeconomic and fiscal parameters after the pandemic”, - he stated.
At the end of his report, the Minister noted that the information submitted by him comprised all the directions appurtenant to the competence of the Ministry.
“Each of these directions is ensured by an effective team of the Ministry and I would like to thank them for their activity. Besides, I would like to thank the Parliamentary Majority and especially the Budget and Finance Committee for the productive cooperation that we enjoyed”, - the Minister stated.
