World Bank provided Georgia with 40-million-US-dollar privileged credit

The credit has been allocated to support the country's reforms.

The agreement was signed on September 15 in Tbilisi by the Finance Minister Dmitry Gvindadze and the World Bank South-Caucasian Regional Director Asad Alam.

Mr Alam told reporters after the signing ceremony that "part of the loan will go to social and economic reforms; the rest of the funds – to rehabilitation of the road infrastructure."

The credit worth 40 million US dollars was granted by the World Bank to Georgia within the third phase of the Programme of "Development Policy (DPO)". The first two phases were implemented in 2009 and 2010, for which purpose the World Bank had issued two loans of 90 and 51 million US dollars.

The Finance Ministry of Georgia has reported that "within the DPO Programme the World Bank supports the reforms successfully carried out by the government of Georgia in the following areas: a stable and growth-oriented macro-fiscal environment; effective management of state finances; and improved efficiency of programmes on social protection and competitiveness of Georgia's economy," the ITAR-TASS reports.

The term of the new credit is 25 years, the grace period is 5 years, and the annual rate is 2 percent, the "Business-Georgia" writes.

As of July 31, 2011, the volume of Georgia's foreign debt and the credits taken under governmental guarantees exceeded 4.2 billion US dollars, the RIA "Novosti" reports.