The Number of Poor People Is Increasing in Georgia

State Department of Statistics of Georgia has been implementing the project of poverty monitoring in the country. The study has been done in three directions. The department studies: first – the usage of grocery; second – abilities to study; and access to health care service from the side of the population.

`It is obvious for everybody that the welfare of the population of Georgia has reached quite high scales of differentiation in recent years `, `the Dilis Gazeti` says. Ruslan Iemtsov, a World Bank expert, concludes the same and states that `with the dynamic existing in the country 60 percent of the population might find itself beyond the poverty line in three years`.

20 percent of the population lives beyond the poverty line (they are continually poor) nowadays. The number reaches 40 percent during the year, which means that this part of the population finds itself beyond the poverty line at least once, he said. It is worth pointing out that the social and economic conditions of the population have been getting worse since 1998. `Bound between rich and poor is being increasing. That means the rich spend their wealth more`, Teimurtaz Beridze, head of the State Department of Statistics, announced.

`The Dilis Gazeti` clearly expresses its dissatisfaction towards the social and economic state existing in the country and writes: `Georgia is the only country on the earth where people can live for months, even years, without salaries and pensions while the government puts on the image of a protector`.