TBILISI, DFWatch–The government in Georgia says the overall crime level dropped by one fourth in 2013 compared to the preceding year, although the number of new criminal investigations grew by 40 percent.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs’s latest crime statistics were published on Thursday and show that there was an increase in the first quarter of 2013, which is explained by a change in the methodology being used. The number of crimes fell significantly after the first quarter.

The statistics, which includes data from the whole country, shows that there were 10 036 fewer crimes in 2013 than in 2012, a drop of 25.7 percent, but the number of new criminal investigations was 40.9 percent more than the year before.

In December 2013, the number of crimes went down by 1 470. This is 36.9 percent less than in the last month the year before.

The ministry estimates the total number of crimes in 2013 to 28 970, 17 339 out of which led to an investigation. 14 033 of the crimes took place in Tbilisi and in 6 494 of these were investigated. The number of crimes was reduced by 15.2 percent in Tbilisi in 2013.

In December 2013, there were 2 511 crimes in the whole country, and 1 260 of them were investigated.