The Khachapuri Index is one of the most popular Indexes in Georgia. ISET uses the Khachapuri Index as a simple tool that tracks inflation. The creation of the Khachapuri Index was inspired by the Big Mac Index, made and used by the Economist. ISET’s Khachapuri index uses a basket for calculating inflation that includes only those ingredients that are needed to cook one Imeretian khachapuri – flour, cheese, yeast, milk, eggs, and butter.

International and domestic media outlets often mention the Khachapuri Index while speaking about one of Georgia’s most famous traditional dishes and about Georgia’s economy in general. On November 21, the BBC published an article about khachapuri, which read:

“Khachapuri is so popular that economists have coined the term Khachapuri Index, inspired by the Big Mac Index once created by The Economist. In this Caucasian case, Georgian economists monitor inflation by tracking the production and consumption of the main ingredients in khachapuri: flour, cheese, butter, eggs, milk, and yeast.”

One of the world’s most popular food and wine magazines, SAVEUR (based in New York City) published an article entitled “The Khachapuri Index is Georgia’s answer to our Big Mac Index (Burgernomics can't compare to cheesenomics)”. The author then discussed the methodology behind the index:

“As it turns out, Georgian economists at the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET) created their own cultural riff, the Khachapuri Index, several years ago.”

Apart from the international press, the local media is also paying attention to Kh-index dynamics. The Cospot published an article entitled “The pulse of the Georgian economy: the Khachapuri Index”, where the author discussed the kh-index and one of its publications.

The Khachapuri Index team at ISET provides biweekly publications of the Khachapuri Index, which is also published by The Financial.