Economic situation in the Middle East and Central Asia region is positive. Despite this    assessment the IMF gives notice of hidden risks as well.  The IMF experts presented the report on the economic survey of the region to the Tbilisi hotel “Marriott”. Officials of the National Bank, Government and Parliament of Georgia   attended the presentation.   The International Monetary Fund evaluated the last year economic situation in the Middle East and Central Asia region as healthy. The IMF experts survey states that last year the real GDP growth in the region amounted to 6% on average, considerably exceeding the 1998-2002 years ratio. The state of the fiscal and current accounts has been improved. As a result, the government debt against GDP has decreased, while the  official  reserves have increased.   The IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department  hasn’t left out of consideration the fact that in some cases the part of the society, especially exporters and foreign assets owners, have   negative attitude towards currency appreciation. The IMF believes that the fear of exporters is groundless as both forms of adjustment (nominal appreciation and high inflation)   has   an identical impact on external competitiveness in terms of the result.   The President of the National Bank of Georgia, Mr. Roman Gotsiridze, who attended the IMF presentation stressed again the importance of the IMF support for the country development. At the same time, Mr. Roman Gotsiridze focused his attention on maintaining the national currency and inflation within the program parameters under the conditions of increasing the finance flows in the country. “We are facing a choice – either currency exchange rate is to be over - appreciated or inflation should be higher. Our aim is to find “the golden mean”.  The National Bank of Georgia successfully deals with this problem” – said the President of the National Bank of Georgia.   Besides Georgia, the IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department, includes another seven CIS states – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.