Agricultural production has decreased by 0.8% in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. In spite of decline in agricultural production, FDI in agriculture has increased. While FDI in agriculture is relatively low compared to the other sectors of Georgian economy, it should be noted that, agricultural FDI in the second quarter of 2018 reaches its maximum for the last three years.

In August 2018, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri increased to 3.43 GEL, which is 3.8 % higher month-on-month (m/m, that is, compared to July 2018), but 0.5% lower year-on-year (y/y, compared to August 2017).

Recently, Geostat released the preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for the second quarter (April-June) of 2018, which now stands at 6.0%. This is only 0.1 percentage points above the recent ISET-PI forecast. As a result, real GDP growth for the first seven months of 2018 reached 5.5%.

Georgia’s real GDP growth constituted a strong 5.5% year over year (YoY) in the second quarter (Q2) of 2018, according to the Geostat figures. Recently this year, IMF and World Bank upped their forecast of economic growth for Georgia from 4.2% to 4.5%. In August, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has also revised its forecast for 2018 from 4.8% to 5.5%. Meanwhile, ISET-PI expects annual growth in 2018 to be 6.3% YoY.

After three consecutive quarters of improvement, BCI in the third quarter of 2018 has worsened, dropping to 35.4 index points, which is a 4.2 index point loss over the previous quarter. The BCI drop is based on lowering expectations and worsening of past performance in many business sectors. Compared to other sectors, manufacturing assessed their past performance and expectations the most pessimistically. In contrast, the agriculture sector is the most positive, reflecting a high season in production.