In October 2020, Georgian power plants generated 852 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 6% increase in total generation, compared to the previous year (in October 2019, the total generation was 800 mln. kWh). The increase in generation on a yearly basis comes from the increase of 17% in wind power generation and 71% in thermal power generation, more than offsetting the decrease of 17% in hydropower generation.

The average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri stood at 4.62 GEL in November 2020. This is 4.5% higher MoM (compared to October 2020), and 12% higher YoY (in comparison to November of 2019). The index maintaining an upward trend at this time of the year is typical and relates to the increasing price of cheese (due to the reduced supply of fresh milk).

The recovery of the Consumer Confidence Index, observed from May to July, has been losing steam in September and the November survey confirms that consumer confidence is struggling to go back to prior pandemic levels.

The CCI has been picking up slightly in October, suggesting that the trend observed since May could be resuming after the dip of last month. It is a bit too early to draw a firm conclusion though, as the CCI remains below the values observed four years ago.

Geostat has updated its GDP growth estimate for the third quarter of 2020. The Q3 growth rate stands at -3.8%. As a result, the real GDP growth estimate for the first nine months of 2020 is -5%. As a result of the update, the growth forecast for Q4 of 2020 was revised to -3.3%. ISET-PI’s first forecast for Q1 of 2021 puts GDP growth at -1.4%.