In January, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri dropped to 3.40 GEL, which is 7.4% lower month-on-month (m/m, that is compared to the previous month), and 5% lower year-on-year (y/y, that is compared to the same month of last year).

The only one contributor to y/y deflation was the main component of the Khachapuri recipe - cheese (-13.8%) (see graph), while the prices of other components showed have increased: flour (+16.6%), milk (+5.4%), yeast (+7.6%), butter (+11.3%), and eggs (+1.3%).

A possible explanation for the cheese price decline could be the fact that for the production of Khachapuri only one particular kind of cheese can be used, namely Imeruli. Imeruli cheese used for making Khachapuri is mainly prepared in the region of Imereti and then transported to Tbilisi and other regions of Georgia. So, there is quite some transportation involved in the production of Khachapuri. The low price of Imeruli cheese (compared to the previous year) can thus be attributed to a decrease in transportation costs.

Prices of fuel went down in Georgia throughout the last couple of months. GeoStat reports that in January prices for fuel and other lubricants had gone down by 3.7 % in m/m terms and by 5.9% in y/y terms.