After a prolonged economic downturn inthe early 1990s Georgia has succeeded in improving economicperformance. The Government of Georgia undertook large-scalereforms that encouraged increased output growth. Over theperiod 2003-2012 the Georgian economy grew at an averageannual rate of 6.6 percent. Privatization, new simplifiedtax codes introduced in 2005 and 2010 which reduced thecomplexity and number of taxes, the cancellation of importduties on approximately 90 percent of goods, and an 88percent reduction in the number of licenses for doingbusiness resulted in increasing foreign investment inflowsinto the country. Large external public borrowing to financeenergy imports during the first years of independenceresulted in a quick accumulation of external debt stock,which exceeded 80 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) bythe end of 1994. As a result of strong performance in1996-1998 when the country's economy grew at 10 percentannually on average, the external debt declined sharply tobelow 58 percent of GDP. However, depreciation of the Lariagainst the US dollar during the Russian crisis diminishedthese achievements. The declining of the debt-to-GDP ratioresumed in 2000. From June 17-26, 2013, a World Bank tea
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
