The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 6 August 2008. The agenda of the Meeting consisted of 34 items.
At the commencement of the Meeting, Prime Minister of Georgia Vladimer Gurgenidze touched upon the inflation issues in Georgia. He said: like in June, in July we had deflation. Inflation reached 1,2%, which means that the prices in July dropped by 1,2%. This is a very good trend. If the prices surged up by 0,7% in May, they slightly dropped in June - by 0,1%, and the drop in July reached 1,2%. As a result, the annual inflation rate that by the end of June is 9,8% dropped from 11% to 9,8%. Thus, for a very long time, the inflation rate has dropped to a single-digit figure. This is a very positive trend indeed. Of course, we cannot stop at it. The goal of National Bank is to keep the inflation rate by the end of this year down to 8% that would be quite a normal figure for the country growing like us. At present, the inflation rate in Georgia is the lowest in the region, in our neighbourhood. The inflation rate is much higher in a number of East European countries. I'd like to stress that National Bank has contributed to it to a significant extent and would like to express thanks to its team for their professionalism and courage. The fact that in June and July we had deflation is primarily the result of the courageous step made by National Bank towards increasing interest rates. But this is my personal opinion, and this deflation will make it possible to drop, at least to a slight extent, interest rates in the near future. I'd like to underscore that this falls within the exclusive competence of National Bank only. I am just expressing my personal opinion. Our repeated appreciations go to them.
Then the Prime Minister of Georgia reminded the audience that a draft version of the 50-Month Government Action Plan had been distributed at the previous meeting. He said: in this respect, a few expanded meetings were held over the past week, including with participation of foreign experts. We discussed matters related to water supply, energy, etc. Meetings on such matters were held with a few ministries as well. A few more meetings are scheduled to be held this week, too, including today, as a result of which all the comments, additional initiatives or opinions will be gathered together for the next Government Meeting to give the final shape to the draft action plan. Thereafter, we can submit the draft action plan to the President. The Prime Minister of Georgia expressed thanks to everyone for their work, adding that for over the week all the ministries had to work really hard to make sure that the final version of the 50-month action plan was developed.
Organizational Department of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia