On June 4-5, a seminar was held in Gudauri for the Georgian Parliament Members organized by the IMF, where the National Bank President Roman Gotsiridze participated. The main subject of the seminar was “Georgia: Fiscal and Monetary Policy and Poverty Reduction Issues”. Fiscal and monetary reforms and the implementation of the poverty reduction and economic growth program were discussed at the seminar for 2 days. The second day of the seminar was devoted to the monetary policy issues for Georgia. Fiscal policy was reviewed in the presentation of Robert Christiansen, IMF Resident Representative in Georgia. He discussed the main monetary events in 2004-2005. Legalization of the economy and large foreign currency inflows caused real appreciation of lari and increased inflation last year. Against the backdrop of fiscal deficit, the growth of reserve money is expected in 2005. Thus the National Bank faces the difficult choice between inflation and real appreciation of the lari rate, Mr. Christiansen said. In his presentation, President Gotsiridze stated that in 2005 inflation should be expressed in a one-digit figure, and lari rate should go up moderately. President thinks that this trend should not prevent the development of the export potential. President also discussed new approaches to monetary policy used by the National Bank to neutralize the adverse effect of the excess privatization revenues on inflationary processes. President introduced to the seminar participants the offer of the Bank to increase the amount of the National Bank capital gradually, to 40 million lari. The current amount of the Bank’s capital 15 million lari is only one per cent of its assets, which is the lowest indicator in CIS.After the presentations, Robert Christiansen and Roman Gotsiridze answered the questions of the Parliament Members..