40% of Georgia’s population below the poverty line

Some of the statements made by President Saakashvili during meetings with party members are being seriously challenged by independent analysts. For instance, he has stated that five years ago 54% of Georgia’s population lived below the poverty line but today only 20%. Analysts think that real figure is double that, and figures back them up.

Officially the number of economically vulnerable people in 2009 was 1.6 million but in January 2010 it is 1.7. Simple arithmetic therefore shows that if Georgia’s population is 4.3 million, as the latest census suggests, the 1.7 million vulnerable people make up about 40% of the population.