GEORGIA: IMF ASSISTANCE PUT ON HOLD.(Brief Article)

IPR Strategic Business Information Database, December, 1999

Following the recent IMF visit to Georgia, it became clear that IMF assistance would resume next February, at the earliest. First, however, the Georgian authorities must implement reforms they pledged to undertake. The director of the IMF's European Department, John Odling Smy, concluded that Georgia's structural reforms were a success between 1994-97, but since that point the economy has regressed.

The IMF mission highlighted corruption as the weakest point of the reforms, which has created a weak investment climate that impedes both foreign and domestic investment. Mr. Smy outlined two particular types of corruption: bribery among middle and lower officials and the large-scale appropriation of state power in the higher echelons of power.