Under the rule of Dream, Georgia lost 15 Billion Lari, so without the Georgian Dream, Georgians would be twice richer

The UNM responds to Irakli Garibashvili's claims that we have unprecedented economic growth in the country. According to Party Chairman Nika Melia, the population of Georgia cannot feel the economic growth in their pockets, as the government's statements are exclusively populist in nature.

According to Melia, Garibashvili's statements is a number juggling, manipulation and ash blowing.

"The government relentlessly proves to us that the country's economy is experiencing unprecedented growth.

The Russian Dream talks about unprecedented economic growth of 10%, while the 2023 budget plans growth of 5%, and that's with a price increase of about 25% over the last 2 years.

This means that nominally we may have a little more money, but absolutely everything we can buy costs a lot more.

Garibashvili boasts a 10 percent growth rate, while here in our neighboring Armenia, the annual economic growth rate is 13 percent. He finds countries on distant continents and begs for them, and for some reason neighboring countries are not mentioned simply because they prevent the coveted side of the cauldron from opening its ears.

Garibashvili said that this year our economy has grown so much that Europe and America would envy it. He painted such a picture, as if the whole world was visiting us. He listed the countries whose economic growth is lower than ours, but said nothing about how many countries are ahead of us.

Also, this is typical manipulation and here's why:

A one percent increase in GDP, for example, would increase the wealth of one citizen of Luxembourg by $1,200 a year, while the wealth of a citizen of Georgia would only increase by $48.

Garibashvili lies to us instead of the European perspective and tells us that we have economic growth instead, which is actually reflected in what?

In 2015 the number of welfare recipients in the country was 390 thousand, by the end of 2021 there will be 660 thousand. In just six years, the number of vulnerable people has increased by 270,000.

According to the latest NDI study, every third citizen of Georgia says that he often does not have enough money to buy food for his family.

In 2012, the country's real GDP was 30 billion GEL, in 2022 it will be 45 billion GEL.

During the ten years of the Georgian Dream government, the economy actually grew by only 15 billion GEL, which is very little. The average annual growth during the Dream period was only 4.1 percent.

If the growth (6.24 percent on average per year) had continued during the National Movement's rule, the economy would have grown by another one, that is, by about 15 billion. In fact, we lost 15 billion GEL during the Dream administration.

And if we judge by nominal GDP, about 40 billion were taken out of the country's economy.

If not for all this economic collapse by the government migration would have decreased, today pension would be around 600 GEL, average salary would be 3000 GEL, not tens of thousands of people would leave the country, but many of our compatriots would return and the national debt would not grow to this size.

If economy grew by an average of 6.24 percent a year: a citizen of Georgia would be almost twice as wealthy today (GDP per capita would be around 18 thousand GEL instead of 11 thousand GEL).

The average salary received by more than half of those working in Georgia today would not be GEL 674, but GEL 1500.

Every third person would not be listed in the database of social aid recipients, and the only income of 660 thousand people would not be state social assistance.

There would be even more opportunities in the country, because the higher a person's income, the more he spends and accordingly the demand for local production would increase, giving even more income to everyone from agriculture to other industries.

Finally, investing $3 billion in energy over the next 3 years is yet another lie by the Prime Minister. Considering that all major projects are on hold and investors are fleeing the country, to invest on such a scale in such a short period of time is fantastic.

This is why hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens are fleeing the country, because they want a decent present and a decent future, they want freedom of choice, they want education, they want income and they want security.

That's why we can't waste time! Every day of the Russian Dream government is not only stagnation, but regression, not only a bad present, but a worse future.

That's why we have to move forward, toward change!" - Melia said.