Officials: nothing to worry about over the lari inflation
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, December 2
Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Kvirikashvili has called on citizens not to panic with regard to the GEL exchange rate that has already grown to 1.84 against the dollar.
According to Kvirikashvili, there is no reason for panic.
"We’ll have at least last year’s indicators in terms of investment by the end of the year. As for the other factors, many factors affect the GEL exchange rate. Of course, the state must in no case be affected by the speculation and panic within the market,” he said, adding that the National Bank carries out moderate interventions to prevent sudden changes.
Minister of Agriculture Otal Danelia states that the most important is that the country does not have a deficit of products.
Some allege the price rise on certain everyday products is related to the devaluation of the GEL exchange rate.
Analyst Irakli Lekvinadze believes that the devaluation is caused by several reasons. He states that there is a dollar deficit in Georgia’s trade partner states like Ukraine and Russia.
“This process might have affected the Lari, as well as less flow of tourists to the country and a lack of foreign investment,” he says.
Fellow analyst Gocha Tutbelidze thinks that the main reason behind the current developments in currency is because there has been a decrease in export and an increase in import in October-November.
“Money transfers from foreign states have also decreased,” he said.
