The lari depreciation caused a substantial decrease in USD prices of real estate. Average rental prices of residential property reached their historical minimum in March 2015. Property sellers are trying to compensate for the price decline by offering better, more expensive housing for sale.

On Monday, 8th of June, Zurab Abramishvili from the CERGE-EI (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute) presented his research proposal titled “The Principal Principle: How an Immediate and Random Replacement of School Principals Illuminates Their Value Added; A Case of Education Policy in Georgia”. Mr. Abramishvili is an ISET graduate in 2010, currently, he is doing postdoctoral work at ISET.

In June of 2015, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri fell to 2.85GEL, which is 1% lower month-on-month (compared to May 2015), and 0.8% higher year-on-year (compared to June 2014).

On Friday, June 5th, ISET hosted Mr. Rezo Vashakidze, the founder of Chirina Ltd, by far the largest Georgian producer of poultry products (sold under the BiuBiu brand), a Greenfield investment worth more than 80 mln USD. The main topic of Mr. Vashakidze’s presentation was entrepreneurship in Georgia (as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia).

When Georgia ran into a conflict with its northern neighbor in 2008, it experienced considerable solidarity on part of its main Western ally. The United States supplied military transporters to fly back Georgian troops from Afghanistan, which was correctly understood by the Russians as a warning that the US would not allow Georgia to fall.