18
December
2017
ISET’s Pati Mamardashvili, the head of the Agricultural Policy Research Center, has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in the USA. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, contributing to finding solutions to shared concerns. The main criteria for the selection in the program are academic merit and leadership potential.
15
December
2017
In the middle of December, food prices maintained an upward trend, as ISET’s Retail Food Price Index increased by 2.2%, compared to mid-November 2017. It turns out that the holidays will cost more in 2017, compared to December 2016, as we recorded a significant 10.9% y/y increase in food prices.
11
December
2017
The Khachapuri Index continued its upward trend in November 2017, with the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri reaching 3.70 GEL. This is 1.8% higher month-on-month (compared to October 2017), and 7.1% higher year-on-year (compared to November 2016).
03
December
2017
2017 is shaping up as one of the best years in Georgia’s post-2008 crisis history. The economy is expected to expand by about 5%, beating early expectations and official forecasts by the likes of the IMF and the World Bank. Based on updated GeoStat figures for Q1 and Q2, ISET-PI’s annual growth forecast currently stands at 4.9%. Even that figure is likely to be revised upwards if Q3 growth turns out to be higher than suggested by GeoStat’s preliminary estimate of 4.4%.
30
October
2017
At the end of October, food prices maintained an upward trend; ISET’s Retail FPI gained 2.6% m/m (compared to the last week of September). On an annual basis (compared to October 2016), we recorded a significant 11.3% increase in food prices. According to data from the last two weeks of October, the biggest increase in price was recorded for tomatoes (99%), for which the price almost doubled due to seasonality.
