The Index shows an increase in media polarization since 2020, particularly acute since early 2022. While the Index captures significant polarization around specific events like elections, its response varies across different events and developments.

The term “dollarization”, commonly used among academic economists and finance specialists, has already entered Georgians’ everyday vocabulary. Few people, however, understand what dollarization is, how it comes about and why they should care. Below we try to fill this gap, explaining some basic concepts and discussing why and how dollarization affects ordinary people’s lives.

In the past several months the world has been rocked by profound economic and social turbulence. The COVID-19 epidemic has forced many countries around the world into widespread emergency lockdowns. Economic activity plunged dramatically in February-March 2020, with rapid indicators showing strong contractions in retail, restaurant business, and passenger transport.

On Thursday, March 21, ISET hosted the Governor of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), Mr. Koba Gvenetadze, who delivered a profoundly informative lecture to the ISET Community. Mr. Gvenetadze covered important aspects of long-term development challenges facing the Georgian economy based on the accumulated experience of past development in the country.

Beginning in July 2017, if an entrepreneur offers and/or advertises property and/or service for sale in the territory of Georgia, the price of the property/service shall be expressed solely in GEL. According to the bill, failure to abide by the new law when denominating the price will lead to a warning, while a repeated offense will lead to a penalty of 1000 GEL. Each subsequent offense will be subject to a penalty of 5000 GEL.