ISET-PI and GET have predicted the potential for Georgia to specialize in the international provision of business services. This potential can be primarily applies to the following practices: Operational leasing services, Legal and accounting services, Management consulting and public relations, advertising, market research, R&D, architectural and technical services.

ISET-PI launched the Retail Food Price Index in July 2015. The project is implemented thanks to the cooperation of the largest Georgian retail chains including Carrefour, Goodwill, Fresco, and SPAR. While data from the individual retailers are confidential, the average of prices from all stores can be combined to create a general FPI, as well as FPIs for individual products.

The first tea bushes appeared in Western Georgia in 1847, and since then tea production has played a significant, yet widely unknown, role in Georgia’s history. The humid and subtropical climate of Western Georgia in the regions of Guria, Samegrelo, Adjara, Imereti, and Abkhazia are ideal for harvesting tea, and this was a fact eventually recognized by businessmen outside Georgia.

After the sharp decline in Q2 2015, business confidence (BCI) in Georgia showed signs of rebounding in Q3. In line with expectations, April, May, and June were ex-post not particularly favorable months for Georgian businesses.

An average Georgian household spends more than 40% of its budget on food. It, therefore, stands to reason that Georgian consumers are quite sensitive to food prices, which may be very good news considering recent developments in global commodity markets. According to the latest World Bank’s Food Price Watch, “international food prices declined by 14% between August 2014 and May 2015, sliding into a five-year low.”