Foreign investments are not coming into the country

According to economic analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili, the Georgian Government is not revealing the fact that some serious investment projects have been suspended. “We have not been unaffected by the world financial crisis and the August events. The distrust of the foreign investors towards Georgia is absolutely normal. The irresponsible actions of the Georgian Government, afterwards blamed on the National Bank, worsened the unstable political environment in the country. In fact the National Bank has nothing to do with the sharp change in the Lari rate,” Tsiskarishvili says.

The stream of foreign investments in Georgia, which had been increasing year by year, has practically stopped. In 2006 direct foreign investment was worth USD 1 billion 190.4 million. In 2007 this figure was USD 2 billion 14.2 million. In 2008 direct foreign investments are currently worth USD 525.2 million.

The decrease in direct foreign investment is a big loss for Georgia, because the economic growth of the country was fuelled by this flow of foreign capital, which accounted for 20% of GDP in 2007. Most of this was direct foreign investment that did not create any debt obligations.