On 26 March 2015, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, declared: "The private sector was the champion in economic growth in the previous year. Production output in the private sector has increased by 12.8% whilst the number of employees in the private sector rose by 11,000."
FactChecktook interest in the accuracy of the statement.
We verified the annual statistics[1] of production output and employment in Georgia’s business sector. These data are published by the National Statistics Office of Georgia both quarterly and annually. Of note is that these data often become the topic of political controversies. FactCheck has already verified several statements which have been made in regard to the business sector (see link 1, link 2).Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement is based upon the quarterly data for 2014 which are compared to the analogous data for 2013. The business sector’s complete statistics for 2014 will be published on 1 October 2015.
Table 1:
Business Sector Production Output (GEL million)
| 2013 | 2014 | ||
| I | 4,332.5 | I | 5,017.6 |
| II | 5,132.3 | II | 5,682.9 |
| III | 5,504.0 | III | 6,404.8 |
| IV | 6,260.5 | IV | 6,836.8 |
| Total | 21,229.3 | Total | 23,942.1 |
According to the information of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the total value of goods produced in the business sector in all four quarters of 2013 was GEL 21,229,3 million whilst the number rose to GEL 22,941,1 million in 2014. The latter is 12.8% more than the former and constitutes 82% of the GDP for 2014. Since 2000, the annual growth rate of production output in the business sector has been the following:
Table 2:
Business Sector Production Output Annual Growth Rate (%)
| 2000 | 14% |
| 2001 | 10% |
| 2002 | 16% |
| 2003 | 14% |
| 2004 | 25% |
| 2005 | 33% |
| 2006 | 27% |
| 2007 | 30% |
| 2008 | 6% |
| 2009 | 7% |
| 2010 | 21% |
| 2011 | 45% |
| 2012 | 20% |
| 2013 | 2% |
As illustrated by the table, output has been growing annually. Particularly high growth rates were registered in the years of 2004-2007 and 2010-2012. The highest growth rate was registered in 2011 whilst the lowest growth rate was registered in 2013.
Graph 1:
Business Sector Production Output by Years (GEL million)
As concerns private sector employment statistics, Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement is again based upon average quarterly data. According to the data, the number of private sector employees in all four quarters of 2013 was 503,899 on average whilst in 2014 it reached 514,623. The difference is approximately 11,000.
Graph 2:
Number of Business Sector Employees by Years
Table 3:
Number of Business Sector Employees by Quarters
| 2013 | 2014 | ||
| I | 485,745 | I | 495,713 |
| II | 503,456 | II | 507,610 |
| III | 507,359 | III | 520,217 |
| IV | 519,035 | IV | 534,952 |
| On average | 503,899 | On average | 514,623 |
Of mention is that the annual statistics of the private sector do not match the quarterly statistics of the same year. As clarified by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the quarterly data are incomplete and do not include data from every enterprise. Complete and accurate statistics will be published at a later date. For instance, the average data for the four quarters of 2011, 2012 and 2013 are less than the annual data of the same years. The total sum of every quarter of 2013 indicated that private sector production output was GEL 21 billion whilst the annual statistics for 2013 indicate that private sector production output was GEL 2.3 billion more and, in total, equalled GEL 23.5 billion. The same applies to the employment data where the margin between the quarterly and annual data of 2012 and 2013 is 9% and 12%, respectively.
Conclusion According to the data obtained by FactCheck,
the total output of private sector production by quarters in 2014 constituted 82% of Georgia’s GDP. At the same time, private sector production output and the number of employees in the private sector rose in comparison to the previous quarters of 2013. It must be noted that according to the quarterly data for 2014, the total private sector production output increased by 12.8% whilst the number of citizens employed in the private sector rose by 11,000 as compared to 2013.
FactCheck concludes that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement is TRUE.[1] The data do not include the number of employees in the banking sector.
