NBG head: It’s impossible to artificially strengthen the lari
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, September 9
From being a post-Soviet country, which was drowning in corruption just 15 years ago, Georgia became a progressive country with a lot of achievements behind it, said the President of the National Bank of Georgia Giorgi Kadagidze.
“Georgia has ambitions that to be a country with good business environment. However, there is still a lot to be done. If we want to become a strong country, we first need to create solid ground for that. We need to develop our rural sector. Georgia has already tried to develop it, but we need to try harder. If our rural sector will be strong enough, we will be able to move to another stage and stand side-by-side with economically strong countries,” stated Kadagidze.
He also underlined the fact that the country needs to pay more attention to education and put more money in this field.
“The only way to reach a high level in any field is education. We live in the century, where only the educated staff can do real job. That is why, I call on the government to invest more money in this field,” stressed Kadagidze.
The NBG President spoke about Georgian national currency Lari as well.
According to Kadagidze, it is impossible to make the currency exchange rate artificially gain value, because the economic market is too small.
He said that all the countries in the region, including Georgia, have experienced economic shocks and had their currency exchange rates drop.
“Our exports have decreased, along with our financial sources. Our currency has devaluated as a result, being unable to cope with the problem, as Georgia’s economic system is too dollarized. About 60% of the population has loans in foreign currency despite receiving income in the local one. The only way out is returning the influx of income to Georgia again,” stated Kadagidze.
