PM predicts budget surplus in 2009
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
(Translated by Diana Dundua)
Wednesday, December 5
New Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze predicts a state budget surplus in 2009, saying that social problems—which the government is addressing with handouts of one-off utilities vouchers and firewood, as well as pensions increases—have made a budget surplus impossible in 2008.
Opposition MPs, meanwhile, have criticized the government’s privatization drive, claiming capital generated by this should not have been spent, as it contributes to Georgia’s worrying inflation rate.
“The money gained from privatization is not income received from real economic development. Such a situation encourages inflation,” New Rights MP Irakli Iashvili stated, according to the newspaper Ekonomikuri Palitra.
Opposition MPs, meanwhile, have criticized the government’s privatization drive, claiming capital generated by this should not have been spent, as it contributes to Georgia’s worrying inflation rate.
“The money gained from privatization is not income received from real economic development. Such a situation encourages inflation,” New Rights MP Irakli Iashvili stated, according to the newspaper Ekonomikuri Palitra.