The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri currently stands at 4.33 GEL, which is 6.9% lower month-on-month (compared to April 2021), and 5.6% higher year-on-year (compared to May 2020). The main contributor to the price change is a seasonal decrease in the price of cheese, which fell by -13.1%, compared to the previous month (April 2021).
In April 2021, Georgian power plants generated 825 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 13% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (April 2020, the total generation was 944 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 4% in hydropower generation, as well as, from decrease in the generation of thermal and wind power by 56% and 18%, respectively.
Geostat has released its GDP growth estimate for the first quarter of 2021. The Q1 growth stands at -4.2%, which is 1.2 percentage points above the recent ISET-PI forecast. ISET-PI’s forecast of real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2021 stands at 12.2% -up from 11% in April. The third-quarter growth forecast currently stands at 3.3%.
Modest increase in confidence – Consumer confidence improved by a slight 0.8 percentage points in April (from -39.0 in March to -38.2 in April). Unlike in several of the previous consecutive months, however, the Present Situation Index and the Expectations Index did not move in tandem: while there are higher hopes for the future, perceptions of the present have deteriorated (see Chart 1).
The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri in April 2021 was 4.65 GEL. The Index gained 1% compared to the previous month (March 2021). Usually, at this time of year, seasonal declining trend is expected, which is largely driven by a springtime adjustment of the price of milk and milk products.