The improvement in the Fitch rating will further strengthen the trust of international institutions and investors towards Georgia,- Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze said at the briefing today.

He congratulated the society on the improvement of Georgia’s position in the Fitch Ratings and explained how this progress will reflect on the country’s economy.

“This means that our economy is more competitive, we will be able to attract more investments, create more jobs. This means that we have lesser risks in the economy, and therefor interest rates on credits will be lower ” – Mamuka Bakhtadze said.

According to him, this improvement will have a direct impact on overcoming country’s main challenge, poverty reduction.

Fitch Ratings upgraded on Friday 22 February 2019 Georgia’s sovereign debt grade to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-’ and assigned a stable outlook, citing as main driver behind the revision a resilient economy to negative developments in 2018, with easing external imbalances and robust growth at an estimated 4.8 percent in 2018 and the five-year average of 5.0 percent.

Standard & Poor’s credit rating for Georgia stands at BB- with a stable outlook. Moody’s credit rating for Georgia was last set at Ba2 with a stable outlook.

In general, a credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the creditworthiness of Georgia thus having a big impact on the country’s borrowing costs