This week, ISET’s Khachapuri Index team checked whether average hourly wages in different Georgian locations cover the cost of one standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri. Using the cost of khachapuri ingredients in four major Georgian cities (Tbilisi, Telavi, Kutaisi, and Batumi) and the latest available data for average monthly wages in the corresponding regions, we calculated that one hour of work would not always suffice to treat you to a portion of delicious Imeretian khachapuri.

We started forecasting the annual growth rate at the start of 2014 (see our January 2014 and February 2014 publications for a note on methodology). Based on this month’s data, we expect annual growth in 2016 to be 2.0% in the worst-case or “no growth” scenario, and 4.5% in the best-case or “average long-term growth” scenario.

According to GeoStat data, real GDP growth was 0.8% in January and 2.8% in February 2016. While these figures are by no means high, growth rates in the rest of the region are expected to be quite low this year. In this respect, in contrast to its neighbors, Georgia is performing reasonably well.

Based on February data from three open bazaars in Tbilisi, the average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri stood at GEL3.47. Someone opting for the convenience of shopping in one of Tbilisi’s major supermarket chains, such as Carrefour, Fresco, Spar, or Goodwill, paid 4.40GEL (representing a premium of about 28%) for cooking exactly the same khachapuri.

Using the panel data on the German and Ukrainian labor markets, Prof. Pignatti and his co-authors Thomas Dohmen (University of Bonn, Maastricht University, IZA and DIW, Berlin) and Hartmut Lehmann (University of Bologna, IZA and DIW, Berlin) show that risk attitudes have permanent (exogenous) determinants that are valid at different stages of economic development and in different structural contexts.