In the first half of November, ISET’s Retail Food Price Index increased by 9.2% y/y (compared to November 2016). On a monthly basis (compared to October 2017), retail food prices slightly increased, by 1.2%. The largest bi-weekly price changes were recorded for fruits and vegetables.

On Friday, November 10, the National Bank of Georgia held a meeting with second-year students of ISET’s MA Programme. During the meeting, the students were introduced to the structure of the National Bank, its main objectives, and responsibilities.

On November 9, Daniel Levy, a professor of economics at Bar Ilan University, Emory University and a member of ISET’s International Faculty Committee, presented his paper ‘The real thing’: nominal price rigidity of the nickel Coke, 1886-1959“ (co-authored by his colleague Andrew Young) to ISET professors, students, and researchers.

For several consecutive years, we have been observing a seasonal spike in Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) coinciding in time with young wine festivals (rtveli) and post-harvest euphoria in rural Georgia. Not this year. In September 2017, CCI lost 2.6 points, going down from -16.4 to -19. Both CCI components, the present situation, and expectations indices declined, by 3.4 and 1.9 points, respectively.

ISET has earned a reputation of academic excellence, and all those who walked through the institute’s doors as students and left as graduates have either found meaningful employment or gone on to study abroad at some of the world’s best universities. Yet aside from educating its students in the technicalities and intricacies of economics, ISET also endeavors to instill values and standards amongst its students.