“Georgia is participating in the economic and financial dialogue between the European Union and its membership candidate countries for the first time in the capacity,” - the Ministry of Finance said.

The Ministry explained the dialogue was a tool to prepare candidate countries for integration into the European Semester, the bloc’s framework for the coordination and monitoring of economic and social policies.

The Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili and Acting Governor of the National Bank, Natia Turnava, are participating in a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the EU in Brussels.

Khutsishvili said the meeting was discussing the Economic Reform Programme presented by Georgia to the European Commission for the first time after obtaining the status of a membership candidate country.

"Georgia has a rather successful, outstanding position not only in relation to candidate countries, but also in relation to EU [member] countries. Georgia is distinguished by a high rate of economic growth, and it is also important that the rate of inflation this year is one of the lowest among the candidate countries of the EU.

The country has very quickly achieved macroeconomic stability, both in reducing the budget deficit and external debt. The meeting also discussed ongoing structural reforms in Georgia, which are expected to contribute to sustainable economic growth in the future”, - Khutsishvili said.