28
December
2020
The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about the food security of many countries, in particular import-dependent developing countries like Georgia. Trade restrictions imposed by Georgia’s trade partners tightened the supply of some cereals and vegetables, signalling the risk of an increase in food prices.
28
December
2020
ISET Policy Institute likes to keep our tradition alive and cook up a New Year’s Supra Index for our readers every year. The Index shows the cost of a standard festive “supra” meal for a family of five or six people in each region of Georgia. Traditional dishes included in our calculations are: mtsvadi (grilled cubes of meat), satsivi (chicken in walnut sauce), khachapuri, trout, (pan-fried) chicken tabaka, salad Olivie, pkhali (chopped and minced vegetables with walnut), cucumber and tomato salad, and for dessert, fruit and gozinaki (caramelized walnuts fried in honey). The price of the New Year’s supra, of course, depends on the variety of dishes served for the feast.
16
December
2020
The real GDP growth rate amounted to -3.9% year-on-year for October 2020. Consequently, the estimated real GDP for the first ten months of 2020 was -5.1%. Recently, GeoStat released its preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for the first and second quarters of 2020. The Q1 and Q2 growth rates were revised downward to 2.2% (by 0.1 ppt) and -13.2% (by 0.9 ppt) respectively.
11
December
2020
According to the preliminary statistics released by GeoStat, Georgia’s real GDP contracted by 3.8% year over year (y/y) in Q3 2020. As a result, the estimated real GDP declined by 5.0% in the first nine months of 2020, which is in line with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) and National Bank of Georgia’s (NBG) latest projections of -5% y/y (from October and November correspondingly).
30
November
2020
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.
