Georgia's economy on solid development path - PM

TBILISI, December 1 (Xinhua) -- Georgian Prime Minister Nikoloz Gilauri on Thursday cited two strong indicators to show that his country has been on a solid path of development so far this year.

During a cabinet meeting, Gilauri said Georgia's annual inflation rate for the month of November was at 1.9 percent and that the country had posted a record high third-quarter influx of foreign direct investment of 256 million U.S. dollars.

"The total three-quarter figure (of foreign direct investment) reached 633 million dollars, which is also a very high indicator," said the prime minister.

Georgia ended 2010 with a decade-high year-on-year inflation of 11.2 percent.

The country has since recorded two-digit monthly annual inflation rate this year till June when it started to drop to 2.3 percent in October.

Georgia's central bank has just reduced further its key lending rate to 7.0 percent. The National Bank of Georgia had kept this rate unchanged at 8.0 percent since February. It lowered the rate in July for the first time by 0.25 percentage points.