BCI in the first quarter of 2019 has worsened, dropping to 22.6 index points, which is a 7.4 index point loss over the previous quarter. The BCI drop is driven by worsening in the past performance and expectations in a number of the business sectors. Interestingly, companies in the construction industry assessed their past performance most pessimistically, however they display the most optimistic expectations. While the private sector expectations tend to worsen, they continue to remain positive.

From January 14-16, ISET’s Pati Mamardashvili participated in the 11th conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research (AWBR), hosted by the Department of Business Management at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

According to Geostat’s figures, in the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, Georgia’s real GDP experienced growth of 4% year over year (YoY). Despite the slowdown of the growth rate compared to the previous quarters, IMF recently revised their forecast of economic growth for Georgia upwardly, from 4.5% to 5.0%. Forecasts for other international organizations and the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) remained the same, while ISET-PI, based on October’s data, expect annual growth in 2018 to be 4.6% YoY.

On December 5, ISET organized yet another informational tour for its BA students. This time students visited the FRIXX factory, during which they were introduced to the technical operations and business strategy of the company. They were welcomed by Giorgi Darakhvelidze, General Manager, and Mariam Gabatashvili, Commercial Manager, who gave them a factory tour and showed them how FRIXX potato chips are made.

It is that time of year again when our world starts revolving around the World Bank’s Doing Business publication. It is a time when we once more have the chance to brag about how easy it is to start a business in Georgia, about how small the tax burden on businesses is, and about how good we are at enforcing contracts.