On 25 May 2016 ISET faculty member and head of the Macroeconomic Policy Research Center at ISET's Policy Institute, Dr. Yaroslava Babych, was an invited panel speaker at the conference on Industrial Policy for the Development of Georgia, organized by the Centre for Social Studies of Georgia.

According to GeoStat estimates, real GDP grew by 2.6% year over year in February 2016. This growth rate is an improvement over the 0.8% growth observed in the previous months. Still, in order to reach the predicted quarterly 2.9% growth (the ISET-PI forecast for Q1 real growth), the economy would have to have expanded by at least 5.4% in March. While the actual growth for March is likely to be lower than that figure, the increases in the consumer and business confidence indices (CCI, BCI) in the last month can be interpreted as good signs for the economy going forward.

We are excited to announce that this week ISET will be hosting a large delegation representing the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen. A four-day program is planned to start on April 6, which includes anti-corruption seminars, public discussions, and site visits to relevant public institutions and businesses.

Matsatso Tepnadze, ISET class 2012, has been recently appointed head of the division of planning for infrastructure projects at the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia (MRDI). This division is in charge of elaborating project selection and planning methods, based on a systemic evaluation of strategic public infrastructure projects.

On March 30-31 ISET-PI team took part in an interim research workshop conducted within the framework of a multi-country study “Good Jobs for Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia” organized and financed by the Asian Development Bank. The goal of the study is to inform policy decisions aimed at promoting inclusive growth and reducing poverty and inequality in the countries of Central and West Asia (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, as well as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan).