
Giorgi Papava, Lead Economist and Practice Head for private sector development policy at ISET Policy Institute, represented Georgia at the prestigious International Scientific Conference "Distributed Profit Taxation – Polish and worldwide perspective" on December 9, 2024, at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.

Geostat has published its preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for December 2024, which stands at 6.7%, while the average annual real GDP growth reached 9.5%.

In January, several significant events marked Georgia's political landscape: journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli's arrest and subsequent hunger strike, an assault on Giorgi Gakharia, Donald Trump's inauguration, the European Union's suspension of visa-free travel for Georgian diplomatic passport holders, and Georgian Dream's withdrawal from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Political polarization remained at high levels, showing no improvement from previous years.

The relationship between social assistance programs and electoral outcomes has gathered significant attention in both academic and policy circles, especially in the last decade. Social assistance programs, designed to support vulnerable populations, often carry political implications, particularly in developing democracies where incumbent governments may leverage these programs to secure voter loyalty.

For the first quarter of 2025, business confidence in Georgia decreased (by 8.8 index points) and reached -5.0. The highest decrease in business confidence is observed in the service (-21.5) sector. The negative change in BCI for Q1 2025 was driven by decreased past performance as well as pessimistic expectations.