Georgia’s real GDP growth constituted a strong 5.5% year over year (YoY) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2018, according to the Geostat figures. Recently this year, IMF and World Bank upped their forecast of economic growth for Georgia from 4.2% to 4.5%. In August, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has also revised its forecast for 2018 from 4.8% to 5.5%. Meanwhile, ISET-PI expects annual growth in 2018 to be 6.3% YoY.

From September 2018 to November 2018, APRC conducted a B2B market study for a private party. The aim of the study was to determine the potential size- and geography of the demand for frozen bakery and pastry products from hotels and chain shops in Georgia.

At the start of a new academic year, ISET has made a quick return to participating in international academic events. Between September 6 and 8, Professor Norberto Pignatti presented his research on the links between risk attitudes and labor market outcomes (with particular regards to whether individuals end up working informally or not) in the Georgian labor market at the 15th European Association for Comparative Economic Studies Conference, in Warsaw.

ISET would like to congratulate resident faculty members Norberto Pignatti and Karine Torosyan on the publication of a new article (together with Maksym Obrizan of the Kyiv School of Economics) entitled “Job market outcomes for IDPs: The case of Georgia”, in the Journal of Comparative Economics.

In August 2018, Georgian power plants generated 985 mln. KWh of electricity. This represents a 5% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2017, total generation in August was 1,034 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis mainly comes from a decrease in hydropower and wind power generation (more details in the report below).