The parliament of Georgia has started a discussion of the draft state budget for 2011 introduced by the Georgian Government. The president of the country, Mikheil Saakashvili, has admitted himself that the new budget will be rather austere.
The new budget will be the first one after the Rose Revolution in which income and costs are not increased. The reason is quite obvious - next year there will be no financial support from the Western countries (that formed $4.5 billion, more than the annual state budget).
Among the priorities of the new budget are education and public healthcare. In order to assume the present day investment in this sphere the Government decided t cut down its investment in defense.
The new budget will be balanced and will at $6.9 billion be almost the same as last year ($7 billion). Moreover the Georgian authorities managed to reduce the budget deficit from 6 to 4 per cent. That is why the experts of the International Monetary Fund have called upon the countries of the European Union to follow the Georgian example.
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to VK
