16
April
2015
On Wednesday, April 15th, ISET hosted Archil Kbilashvili, former Prosecutor General of Georgia, currently a Partner of Mgaloblishvili-Kipiani-Dzidziguri (MKD) law firm. Mr. Kbilashvili delivered a presentation regarding the principles of law and order to the ISET community.
16
April
2015
According to Geostat’s rapid estimates, real GDP increased by 4.9% in February. This comes as welcome news after several consecutive months of low and, at times (November 2014), negative growth. ISET’s GDP forecast predicts 0.5% GDP growth in the first quarter of 2015. However, this is likely an underestimation of the true outcome, as the economy has already partially adjusted to the external shocks that were the main drivers of the slowdown.
15
April
2015
After being steadily optimistic for most of 2014 and in the first quarter of 2015, Georgia’s business confidence dropped by 24.5 points to an all-time low level of 3.6 on a scale of [-100; 100] points. The survey, which included 168 firms, suggests that business confidence declined on all measures, across all sectors, and for all firm sizes. Moreover, it is reflected in business perceptions concerning both current performance and expectations concerning the future.
14
April
2015
As of 2012, there were 37000 families in Georgia qualified as environmental migrants (eco-migrants) and in need of resettlement. Despite the scale of the problem, there is no proper legal and institutional setup in Georgia aimed at securing basic human rights of eco-migrants and reducing the adverse consequences caused by environmental factors.
13
April
2015
Economists disagree whether it was a good decision to reestablish the Georgian competition authority. When some years ago it was removed, the underlying logic was that a non-existing authority cannot be corrupt, and, more importantly, cannot harm the economy through misguided decisions. Assuming that corruption will not be a problem for the competition authority, neither now nor in the future, regulating markets is still a highly delicate issue which yields many possibilities to go wrong.
