As you know, we have submitted to the Parliament the 2021 budget, a crucially important document, which will guide us in 2021 and define the country’s state of affairs in a year’s time. Such a statement made today the Prime Minister of Georgia during Cabinet’s meeting.

According to him, the budget is balanced, with its main goals being to fight COVID, support the population and businesses, and economic recovery measures.

“The budget is balanced, and the key goal is to fight the pandemic, secure targeted social assistance for the population, support businesses, and prepare the economy for post-crisis recovery, of course. We developed this budget together with the International Monetary Fund, and this balanced budget cover all basic components necessary to fight against the pandemic and recession.

We have announced the 4th wave of targeted social assistance for citizens and businesses, with a volume of 1 billion 420 million GEL, of which 280 million is set aside for 2020 and 1 billion 140 million for 2021. These sums will be channeled, above all else, toward healthcare, with an additional 450 million GEL allocated under the next year"s budget and main expenses being COVID treatment, testing, preparation for, procurement of, and implementation of vaccination, and virus spread prevention. For citizens’ targeted assistance, the next year"s budget allocates 540 million GEL, and 430 million GEL for supporting businesses.

The budget is the country’s main financial document, which will be reviewed by the Parliament, and it is of vital importance for this review to engage every political force that has received trust from Georgian citizens, and is therefore mandated to take part in debates on a document of systemic importance to the country. We hope that it will happen so in the nearest future, before New Year, so that we can have interesting, albeit heated, discussions on this budget”, - said Giorgi Gakharia.