19
June
2015
According to a recent study, smoking marijuana for many years leads to a severe loss of intelligence: compared with people who did not consume cannabis, the IQ’s of smokers were lower by 13-38 points (Meier et al.: “Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife”, PNAS 109, 2012). Moreover, after a long time of consumption, cognitive abilities and memory do not recover when smoking marijuana is eventually given up.
17
June
2015
After relatively high GDP growth in February and March, the Georgian economy slowed down considerably in April. According to Geostat’s rapid estimates, GDP grew by only 0.9% annually in the reporting month. Consequently, in the first four months of 2015, the Georgian economy expanded by 2.6%.
16
June
2015
It is with deep regret and sadness that ISET confirms that two of our beloved students, Mariam Kutelia and Ivlita Jibuti, became the victims of catastrophic flooding in Tbilisi on June 13th. The whole international community mourns for Georgia, but this news is particularly painful for ISET. It is a terrible tragedy that affected all of us. Life at ISET will never be the same.
12
June
2015
Who should be supervising the activities of commercial banks in Georgia? Currently, this responsibility lies with the country’s National Bank. However, the Georgian parliament will soon be deciding on new legislation, which, if passed, could take away the supervisory role from NBG and transfer it to an independent agency reporting directly to the prime minister.
11
June
2015
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.
