Georgia has been notorious for mismanaging its budget. In 1999, the IMF put one of its programs in the country on hold because Georgia could not meet the conditional budgetary targets the IMF set forth. A more realistic budget in the second half of 2000 paved the way for a new IMF program beginning in January 2001. Georgia's progress towards those new budgetary goals has been uneven, but it has remained on track.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates that in 2001 Georgia's central government took in revenues of approximately $499 million and had expenditures of $554 million. Overall, the government registered a deficit of approximately $55 million. External debt totaled $1.7 billion.