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.

On April 30, 2018, Dr. Yasya Babych (ISET/MPRC) presented at the Georgian Banking Forum 2018 organized by The Financial. The conference was dedicated to the future of banking and took place at the Biltmore Hotel in Tbilisi. Among the invited speakers were Irakli Kovzanadze (Chairman of Finance and Budget Committee of the Parliament of Georgia), Murtaz Kikoria (Vice-Governor, Member of the Board of the National Bank of Georgia), Andras Hemberger(Mastercard), Kakha Kiknavelize (CEO of Bank of Georgia) and other notables.

In April 2018, Georgian power plants generated 1,064 mln. KWh of electricity. This represents a 30% increase in total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2017, total generation in April was 817.2 mln. kWh). The increase in generation on a yearly basis mainly comes from an increase in hydro power generation.

The GEO real property market grew by 0.1% (QoQ) in Q1 2018, in comparison with Q4 2017. The annual increase was more pronounced at 27.2% (YoY), in comparison with Q1 2017. TBS, with a 41.6% share in total sales in Q1 2018, dominated the GEO real property market.

In April 2018, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri declined to 3.29 GEL, which is 7.4% lower month-on-month (that is, compared to March 2018), and 1.0% lower year-on-year (compared to April 2017).