In May 2015, the average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri reached 2.88 GEL - a 2.7% decrease month-on-month (compared to April 2015). In annual terms (compared to May 2014), however, the index added 1%.

On Thursday, May 14th, ISET hosted Helena Schweiger, Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the EBRD, London. Ms. Schweiger presented her recent paper “The impact of armed conflict on firms’ performance and perceptions”, co-authored with Carly Petracco. This study explores the short-run impact of the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia on firms’ performance and their perceptions of the business environment.

Here is a question that has bothered me for a while and I am surprised that nobody else seems to have asked it before: How comes Western countries had the better orchestras (collectives) and the Soviet Union the better classical music soloists during the Cold War? Would one not expect the contrary?

On Monday, May 11th, Professor of Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) Dr. Mette Helene Bjørndal gave a public lecture at ISET conference hall. Prof. Bjørndal held the presentation titled “Insights into the Nordic Energy Market”. The main aspects of the presentation were to review the structure, main characteristics of the Nordic power market, and peculiarities of its integration into other European electricity markets.

The blog piece is available only in Georgian.