Plan to stage revolution amid falling lari exchange rate fails Georgian prime minister

A plan to stage a revolution within two days in Georgia against the backdrop of falling lari exchange rate has failed.

As Caliber.Az reports with reference to Georgian media, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told a press conference.

The Georgian opposition has recently been actively declaring the coming crisis for the Georgian economy against the background of the adoption of the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence”, against which protests have been held in the country since April 15. The reason for the negative forecasts was the depreciation of the Georgian lari, as well as a sharp drop in the value of shares of the two largest banks of Georgia - TBC, and Bank of Georgia on the London Stock Exchange for a day by 15 and 20% respectively.

“Such a process was observed, there were two days when the exchange rate of the lari was supposed to fall, European deputies, foreign ministers were supposed to arrive, and a revolution was supposed to take place within two days, such a weak calculation. In the end, this plan failed. Sometimes these calculations are so weak that they are doomed to failure,” Kobakhidze said.

The currency stabilized a few days after the adoption of the law, but on May 28, the day of overcoming the president's veto, the lari depreciated to 2.76 GEL/$1, while on May 15 it was 2.68 GEL/$1.

According to the PM, the logical conclusion was reached, it was an artificial pressure on the lari.

“On the same day, European MPs were brought to the stage, then foreign ministers were brought to the stage. We think that those, who planned this, were thinking about the success of these processes, that is, the success of the revolution, how weak the plan was, as weakly it ended,” the prime minister said.

During his visit to Georgia, the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Estonia, and Iceland spoke at a rally against the draft law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” in the center of Tbilisi on May 15. Before that, at all meetings, the ministers criticized the bill, while the government representatives, except for President Salome Zurabishvili, assured them of the necessity to adopt such a law in Georgia.

According to Kobakhidze, the change in the exchange rate of the lari occurred with the intervention of one particular entity, but he refused to reveal details, noting that he was prohibited by law from doing so.

“There were possible signs of sabotage, I cannot name them, I am forbidden by law to talk about it. The National Bank is also forbidden by law to talk about it, but there were direct signs of artificial interference,” he said.

During his speech, the prime minister assured that by the end of the year, Georgia will achieve higher growth than the IMF predicted. According to the prime minister, judging by preliminary data for 4 months, the average economic growth is more than 8%.

“As for the preliminary data for four months: January, February, March, April - we have an average growth of more than 8%, much more than the IMF predicted. We don't have data for May yet, although preliminary data, including on taxes and so on, is available. We have a fairly high indicator here as well. Ultimately, by the end of the year, we will reach a higher growth than the IMF predicted,” he said.