Economist Demur Giorkhelidze says in a conversation with Commersant that the country has no chance to make progress in reducing poverty. The economist comments on the Prime Minister's statement, where Irakli Kobakhidze noted that the government's goal is to cut unemployment to below 4% by 2028.
"Everything is in the hands of the government, the Prime Minister will announce whatever he wants. Due to the complete lack of prospects, poverty will not only decrease, but migration will increase even more. I think 4% is a lot. We can say that Georgia has already joined the ranks of rich countries with high income levels. Today's Georgian economy has no chance of improving the situation with poverty and stopping migration. These issues are not even on the agenda," says Demur Giorkhelidze
According to official data, the average salary in the country has grown to GEL 2,217. Demur Giorkhelidze claims that the current data does not reflect reality. According to him, the problem lies in the mechanism for calculating the average salary, according to which the incomes of people with different salaries are summed up and the arithmetic mean is derived from them.
The data on average salaries is ridiculous. First of all, it is absolutely not true. They can calculate an average salary, but they will be in a bad position. That is why it is easy to manipulate the numbers. People’s incomes are not increasing. I do not mean a small group of top managers in banks whose salary can exceed a million. I do not mean a small circle of importers, who, with the support of the government, rob their own people. I do not mean the banking sector, which also does what it does with the support of the government. The rest is already manipulation. When you add up the salaries of the top managers of banks in the millions with the wages of average citizen whose salary is GEL 500, 600, 700 and calculate the average, you will get a fantastic, good result. The government has recently increased the salaries of public sector workers. Everyone feels that the average salary in the country is not GEL1,500. If the usual statistical methods had been used, as required by this science, the picture would not have been like this," Demur Giorkhelidze points out.
According to Irakli Kobakhidze, in 2022-2024, the number of hired workers in Georgia increased by 185 thousand. The average salary is 2 217 GEL. In the Prime Minister’s words, the program goal for 2028 is the average salary to exceed GEL 3 500.
