Citizens of Georgia’s capital recently witnessed the luxurious Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi grand opening. A $140 million investment by the Dhabi Group supplied the market with 214 luxury rooms and suites. The $2 million opening, huge building, and central location (right on Rustaveli Avenue) made the appearance of this hotel on the market very noticeable.

The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri varied across Georgian cities in November 2016, from 3.34 GEL, the minimum, observed in Batumi, to 3.55 GEL, the maximum, observed in Telavi. The average price was 3.46 GEL, which is 1.9% higher month-on-month (compared to October 2016). The Khachapuri Index is down up by 5.6% year-on-year (compared to November 2015), suggesting annual deflation as measured by the index.

Furthermore, high dollarization makes depreciation a dangerous process for the financial sector, as many people with loans or debts in US dollars are unable to pay. In addition, high and persistent dollarization constrains the effectiveness of the monetary policy, as the transmission of the monetary policy to the market interest rates and real variables are rather limited.

ISET is proud to announce that resident faculty member Norberto Pignatti has recently become a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a private, independent research institute based in Bonn (Germany), which conducts nationally and internationally-oriented labor market research. IZA runs the world's largest research network in economic science, comprising over 1,300 international Research Fellows and Affiliates, as well as Policy Fellows from business, politics, society, and the media.

After a couple of declines, food prices in the largest supermarkets in Georgia have increased. In the first two weeks of November, an upward trend was maintained: Retail FPI was 2% higher compared to the same period of October. An increase in FPI was driven by an increase in the price of fruits and vegetables. On an annual basis, we still record a significant overall 9.5% decline (November 2016 VS November 2015).