Finance Minister says Lari fluctuation is beyond his duty
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, December 4
Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri says that the Lari’s fluctuation is beyond his competence. 1 USD is now worth 1.86 Lari.
"I can tell you one thing; I cannot go beyond the competence of the Ministry of Finance. The budget has zero impact on the exchange rate," the minister said.
The minister did not specify whether the devaluation was the fault of the Georgia National Bank.
"The Ministry of Finance does not have the competence to assess the activities of other agencies," said Khaduri.
However, he stressed that the fulfillment of the 2014 budget was not in danger.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Economy Dimitri Kumsiashvili stated that the National Bank along with the ministry, have got levers to stabilize the situation regarding the Lari exchange rate.
“Both institutions have such levers to control this. Through balancing various instruments the institutions have, balancing the Lari rate is possible,” he said and noted that there was no alarming situation regarding the issue and no serious reason for panic.
However, the United National Movement (UNM) states that the situation was alarming and there was a big gap in this year's budget.
“It is the second year that the government has been unable to properly plan and fulfill the budget. A 700-800 million deficit in the budget means that a lot of lost jobs that were to be created, tens of kilometers of road that was to be built, etc,” Japaridze said.
