About the world’s assistance

Georgia has so far been promised an unprecedented amount of assistance from donors – USD 4.55 billion. Of this, USD 2 billion is grant and the rest is a soft loan.

USD 3.7 billion is supposed to be spent on postwar rehabilitation. The support envisages combating poverty and overcoming the budget deficit caused by the decrease of investment inflow and slowdown of economic activity. A World Bank assessment shows that to cover the budget deficit in 2008 and 2009 around half a billion USD is needed annually.

The country should be grateful for such generous support, but the most important issue now is how efficiently, transparently and fairly the money is spent. Some alarming signals are already coming from the ground concerning the distribution of the humanitarian aid to IDPs.