In January 2021, Georgian power plants generated 808 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents an 22% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (January 2020, the total generation was 1,031 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 2%, 38% and 36% in hydro, thermal and wind power generation, respectively.

Geostat has published its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2020, and their estimated growth stands at -6.5%, which is 1.3 percentage points below the ISET-PI’s most recent forecast. The annual real GDP growth in 2020 amounted to -6.1%, which is 0.6 percentage point lower than our recent prediction. Economic activity fell sharply due to global pandemic, although the decline was mitigated by the relatively strong fiscal stimulus and lending.

In the first and second quarters of 2020, Georgian power plants generated 2,893 mln. and 2,797 mln. kWh of electricity, respectively (Figure 1). This represents a 1.5% and 9.7% decrease in total generation compared to the corresponding periods of the previous year (in 2019, the total generation in Q1 was 2,936 mln. kWh and 3,097 mln. kWh in Q2).

In a recent blog post, Y. Babych and L. Leruth raised several issues related to public infrastructure management in the city of Tbilisi. They observed that the consequences of poor past management practices were highly visible. But some of these consequences are also less visible or less immediate. Take schooling, for example. If the authorities fail to plan for the expected increase in the city’s population over the next few years and neglect to build an adequate number of kindergartens/pre-schools, the results will be overcrowded, fast-decaying pre-schools, and eventually poor educational outcomes. Similarly, as the number of cars keeps growing, the authorities must plan new roads and enhance their maintenance.

This report highlights the derivation of sector-specific output (revenue), employment, and investment multipliers based on the Input-Output framework for the Georgian economy, which portrays the potential spillover effects of an increase in final demand for the products of a given sector on the whole economy.