Mikheil Dundua, the Georgian Deputy Finance Minister said the Government was expecting to see a double-digit growth this year based on four-month data of related figures.

Dundua said the growth indicator for the first quarter of the year had been at nine percent on average, while the figure for April was nearly 12 percent, indicating an upward trend in preliminary data.

He said growth indicators for this year had accelerated and were higher than predicted, adding it was possible that “even higher” numbers could be recorded.

"Accordingly, in this case, the optimistic figure of 6-7 percent is the approach on which the budgetary process can be based, although it is not ruled out that a higher figure will be recorded and we will have a very high economic growth this year, as it was in previous years”, he said.

The Deputy Minister said the authors of the study had made an interesting conclusion that freedom in the world was methodically improving slowly, with two states, Georgia and Croatia, standing out with leap-like progress.

Since 2012, over 10 years, Georgia has made a 23-step advancement in the ranking, and according to these improvements, is seventh in the world, second in Eurasia and first in Europe. By all factors, by all indicators, by all comments, Georgia is distinguished as a reformer, as a freedom-improving country”, he said.

The ranking includes an analysis of the 2023 Freedom Index, which categorizes 164 countries and territories into four groups: free, mostly free, mostly unfree and unfree, with Georgia listed as leading in Europe in long-term freedom rating progress since 2012.