Georgian Consumer Confidence (CCI) continued to improve, albeit slightly, in December 2017. CCI added 0.5 index points over November 2017, and 8.7 index points y/y, which is compared to December 2016. Interestingly, people’s perceptions of the recent past and expectations diverged in December. CCI’s Present Situation sub-index went down by 2.3 points m/m, from -23.2 to -25.5), whereas the Expectations sub-index went up by 3.4 index points (from -13.4 to -10).
In December 2017, Georgian power plants generated 1,080 mln. KWh of electricity. This corresponds to a 9% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2016, total generation in December was 1,186 mln. kWh). The source of a decline in generation on a yearly basis is less thermal power generation.
ISET-PI likes to keep tradition and cook up a New Year’s Supra Index for our readers. The Index shows the cost of a standard festive supra meal for a family of five to six people in each region of Georgia. Traditional dishes included in our calculations are: mtsvadi, satsivi (chicken in walnut sauce), khachapuri, trout, tabaka (fried) chicken, olivie salad, pkhali, cucumber&tomato salad, and for desert, fruit and gozinaki (caramelized walnuts fried in honey).
This summer I bought a small piece of land (0.15ha) in the village of Okhureshi to grow a vineyard. About 700 “Usakhelauri” vine seedlings planted on that land in November this year will soon provide the most scarce and expensive grapes in Georgia. In just in a couple of years the vines will mature, and I will enjoy something as nice as the neighboring vineyard depicted in the photo.
2017 is shaping up as one of the best years in Georgia’s post-2008 crisis history. The economy is expected to expand by about 5%, beating early expectations and official forecasts by the likes of the IMF and the World Bank. Based on updated GeoStat figures for Q1 and Q2, ISET-PI’s annual growth forecast currently stands at 4.9%.