Georgia’s financial situation

According to the outgoing United National Movement (UNM) government Georgia’s currency reserves are approximately 2.9 billion GEL. The currency reserves can be broken down into the following: the State Treasury has reserves of 920 million GEL, local governments 200 million GEL, public legal entities 320 million GEL and state enterprise deposits 587 million GEL. The UNM has emphasized that it has left the country’s finances in a solid state. The incoming Georgian Dream (GD) government has responded by suggesting that Georgia’s financial situation is not as cheerful as the outgoing government claims. To complicate matters GD has to deal with the 2013 budget, which was submitted to Parliament by the outgoing government. The 2013 budget is approximately 6.8 billion GEL. Georgian Dream representatives claim that UNM’s economic team hastily drafted the budget under pressure during the parliamentary election campaign and cite various discrepancies as proof of misallocated funds. The incoming government will have its work cut out for it in sorting out the budget.