13
February
2017
In January, the cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri continued to increase, ranging from 3.56 GEL (Batumi and Tbilisi) to 3.92 GEL (Kutaisi), with the average cost being 3.67 GEL. The new average price is 1.9% higher than the price in January 2016. As for month-to-month development, the price of khachapuri is 1.3% higher compared to the previous month (December 2016).
13
February
2017
“The fundamental problem for Georgian security is that Russia holds all the major cards and no one is reshuffling the deck in Georgia’s favor”, writes Neil MacFarlane in his 2016 article on Georgia’s security situation. Georgia has a mighty neighbor that is not democratic, does not respect the right of self-determination of nations, and, most importantly, actually brings its military power to bear whenever Russian (legitimate or illegitimate) interests are not sufficiently honored.
11
February
2017
“The Arab Spring was a revolution of the hungry.” As stated by The Boston Globe’s journalist Thanassis Cambanis in his 2011 article claiming that in countries where access to food was an issue, “hitting the dinner table” is not a good idea. In order to demonstrate the importance of food prices, he went even further and reminded his readers that when food price inflation in Egypt reached almost 19%, the president of the country had to resign.
10
February
2017
According to the preliminary statistics released by GeoStat, Georgia’s real GDP growth was 2.2% year over year (YoY) in 2016. This result fell behind the World Bank’s, IMF’s, and EBRD’s last growth projections of 3.4%. The NBG’s 3.5% growth projection from November also overestimated Georgia’s economic growth in 2016.
06
February
2017
“The type of failure we’re talking about is like how frogs lay 20,000 eggs so a few wind up as adults sitting on a lily pad sucking down mosquito dinners” is how the author of the recent Newsweek article describes the rate of failure it takes to breed a handful of unicorns-tech startups valued at more than $1 billion.
