Deputy Finance Minister: If vaccination does not go at a high pace, we will get less economic growth and loss of one and a half billion for the country

"If vaccination does not go at a high pace, we will get less economic growth, 5.5% instead of 7.7%, which will bring additional losses of about one and a half billion to the country's economy," Deputy Finance Minister Giorgi Kakauridze said at the plenary sitting of the extraordinary session of the parliament.

According to the Deputy Minister, if the vaccinated population remains at 3%, the budget loss will be even higher and may amount to three billion.

"Vaccination is the most important thing today. This year, as of today, the biggest risk in our country and in the world is probably the next wave of the pandemic, and that is why one of the areas on which we have made changes to the budget is the vaccination process. We must all work together to involve our citizens as much as possible in the vaccination process, otherwise, of course, there are risks that the country and the economy will suffer.

Of course, the economic loss will be reflected in the additional budget loss. The materialization of this risk can be translated into the decrease of the economic from expected 7.7% to 5.5%, according to our pessimistic scenario. This, of course, means a loss of one and a half billion for the country, and we should not allow this and should do everything possible to increase the number of our vaccinated population as much as possible," Kakauridze said.