Inflation—discrepancies between official figures and reality?
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)

Some independent analysts peg Georgia’s current inflation rate at 20 percent, while the government maintains it is below ten—predicting a figure of eight percent in 2008—according to the newspaper Rezonansi.

The Statistics Department is not an independent body, but is controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development, following institutional reforms in 2004 which took it out of the president’s control, according to former economy minister and current majority MP Lado Papava.

In a recent edition of Akhali Taoba, Papava argues that the government presents only the statistics which show success in the economic sector.

“[Favorable statistics] are the only tool with which the administration successfully fights inflation,” he says.

In July 2006, the Statistics Department put twelve-month inflation at 14.5 percent, provoking cautionary words from the IMF regarding government fiscal policy.

By the end of the year, the figure had officially reduced to 8.8 percent, but independent analysts have questioned the validity of this figure.

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