In January 2020, the cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri continued to increase, ranging from 4.21 GEL (Kutaisi) to 4.38 GEL (Batumi), with the average cost being 4.30 GEL. The new average price is 18.3% higher than the price in January 2019. While in month-on-month development, the khachapuri price is 0.7% higher than in December 2019.

The yearly price increase is driven largely by the deprecation of the Georgian lari against the US dollar. The GEL/USD exchange rate reached 2.88, 0.22 points higher than the previous year (January 2019). The depreciation of the lari also put upward pressure on the price of imported khachapuri ingredients, such as imported milk powder (a fresh milk substitute), butter, and wheat.

In January 2020, although the Georgian lari depreciated (YoY) relative to the USD, compared to last year, it could not compensate for inflationary pressure, thus khachapuri still proves expensive for foreign currency earners. The Index gained value in USD terms, rising by 9% in January 2020 compared to the same period of last year.

The situation is roughly similar when looking at the euro price, where the cost of khachapuri is up by 12% YoY.