- Moldovan Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu claims that Georgia criticizes Moldova out of “envy.” He says Moldova is moving faster toward EU membership. But official figures tell a different story. In 2025, Georgia’s economy grew more than three times faster than Moldova’s. Georgia also had a much lower poverty rate.
- Moldova vs Georgia Economy: What the Growth Figures Show
- Georgia’s Poverty Rate Is Much Lower
- Foreign Investment Figures for Georgia and Moldova
- Georgia Responds to Claims About European Integration
Moldovan Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu claims that Georgia criticizes Moldova out of “envy.” He says Moldova is moving faster toward EU membership. But official figures tell a different story. In 2025, Georgia’s economy grew more than three times faster than Moldova’s. Georgia also had a much lower poverty rate.
Grosu made the claim on TV8’s New Week program. He said Tbilisi often criticizes Chisinau because the two countries are moving toward European integration at different speeds.
“Georgia never misses an opportunity to criticize us. There is a lot of envy toward Moldova because we are moving faster along the path of European integration,” Grosu said.
Moldova vs Georgia Economy: What the Growth Figures Show
Moldova’s economy grew by 2.4% in real terms in 2025, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. GDP per capita was about €7,644.
Georgia recorded much faster growth. Its real GDP increased by 7.5% in 2025. Nominal GDP reached 104.6 billion lari, up 12.4% from the previous year. GDP per capita stood at $10,296.
Georgia’s Poverty Rate Is Much Lower
The difference in poverty rates is even more striking. In Moldova, 31.1% of the population lived below the absolute poverty line in 2025. In rural areas, the rate reached 40%.
Georgia’s absolute poverty rate fell to 7.1%. That is about one-third of the 2020 rate, when poverty stood at 21.3%. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that around 90,000 people had escaped poverty over five years.
Foreign Investment Figures for Georgia and Moldova
Foreign direct investment in Georgia also increased in 2025. It rose by 7.6% to reach $1.69 billion.
Moldova’s figures measure the total stock of direct investment at the end of the year. It stood at €5.37 billion, including €3.14 billion from EU countries.
Georgia Responds to Claims About European Integration
This is not the first time claims of Georgia’s “envy” have surfaced in Chisinau. Officials in Tbilisi have responded before.
In January 2026, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili addressed claims that Moldova and Ukraine were ahead of Georgia on the path to EU membership.
“It is an insult to the Georgian people to say that Ukraine and Moldova are supposedly objectively ahead of Georgia,” Papuashvili said.
He argued that Chisinau and Kyiv were ahead of Tbilisi only “in embracing the Brussels bureaucracy.”
Papuashvili also said that Georgia surpassed both countries “in terms of economic indicators and the development of democracy.”
