TBILISI, October 12 – Georgia’s government has increased a planned pension rise for people under 70 from 20 lari to 45 lari, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced Monday.
From January 1, the monthly pension for people under 70 will rise to 415 lari, except for pensioners living in high-mountain areas.
The 2027 draft budget had initially provided for an increase of only 20 lari. Earlier Monday, First Deputy Finance Minister Giorgi Kakauridze said the figure could still be revised and that officials were looking at whether a larger increase was affordable.
A short time later, Kobakhidze announced the bigger increase. He said the change would cost the state an extra 128 million lari. Social spending already makes up more than 33 percent of the state budget, he added.
Kobakhidze said the government wanted to increase pensions further where possible, but warned that pushing social spending too high could slow economic growth, add to inflation and hurt Georgia’s access to international financing.
Opposition politician Nika Cherkezishvili of Strong Georgia-Lelo said the government had changed course after receiving a negative reaction from pensioners to the original 20-lari increase.
He said the additional 25 lari was still too little and argued that a much larger pension increase was possible.
The government said more than 5 billion lari had been allocated for old-age pensions in 2026, while another 540 million lari was set aside to co-finance the funded pension system.
Later Monday, Kobakhidze also defended planned salary increases for senior public officials, arguing that cutting ministers’ pay too far could increase the risk of corruption. He said the total salaries of state officials made up less than 0.1 percent of the budget.
