The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) keeps its refinancing rate unchanged at 11%. The members of the parliament consider the NBG's decision correct.
"I think that the National Bank is independent in its decisions and recently I have been trying to ensure this independence. This is the decision of the NBG - it maintains a strict monetary policy. A combination of factors must be at play here, including tight monetary interest rates and deficit reduction, which we are making progress on. And I think that government involvement is important in that regard. Competition should be increased in a number of directions, for example the Ministry of Economy should help the National Bank... Ministries of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and other directions as well.
Only the activities of the central bank are no longer enough to suppress inflation. We have progress in two factors - one is part of the Ministry of Finance, as the deficit is decreasing, while the other is strict monetary policy. For example, we have seen that the opening of the Turkish medicine market, has led to lower prices. Such solutions are acceptable and competition is to be increased. The inclusion of these factors is necessary in order to suppress and reduce inflation," says Irakli Kovzanadze, chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee.
Roman Gotsiridze, a member of the parliamentary opposition, says that increasing the refinancing rate would not be correct.
"The NBG's decision is correct, the increase in the refinancing rate would not be justified. The National Bank could limit inflation in other ways, and in this case, this decision is correct," said Roman Gotsiridze.
