Back in 2014, Georgia and the European Union (EU) signed an Association Agreement, which included the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between the EU and Georgia. While this agreement creates new opportunities for Georgia’s agricultural exports, high food safety standards in the EU market make it difficult to fully utilize these opportunities. This is particularly true for products of animal origin, which are subject to strict regulations.

ISET-PI is working on a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the Draft Law of Georgia on Biodiversity. This project will emphasize the consideration of Sustainable Development Goals in the RIA approach.

GEO real property market slowed down in APR-17 (-16.2% MoM) and gradually recovered during next 2 months: MAY-17 (+20.8% MoM) and JUN-17 (+6.5% MoM). With a total of 24 673 property sales, GEO market in Q2 2017 grew by 12.7% (YoY).

The cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri in June 2017 ranged between 2.64 GEL and 3.52 GEL, with the average price being 3.08. The average price in June 2017 is 1.8% lower compared to the previous month (May 2016), and 1.5% higher year-on-year (compared to June 2016).

For the first time in history, the price of Bitcoin broke its highest record (Figure 1) rising above 2,900 USD during the last week of June, 2017. One of the reasons why the market unexpectedly became optimistic about Bitcoin could be the fact that in April, the Japanese government formally accepted1 the cryptocurrency as a mean of exchange, which gave it more validity in Asia’s richest economy.