On 17 February, ReforMeter hosted its first public-private dialogue on E-commerce reform. The event highlighted the core issues, challenges, and recommendations behind the creation of a Georgian E-commerce policy.

Gender Impact Assessments (GIAs) for selected government programs and policies, specifically focuses on a draft legislative amendment to Georgia's Public Registry law and a package of legislative amendments regarding the status of single parents. In collaboration with ISET Policy Institute, UN Women is providing technical assistance to the National Agency of Public Registry and the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia.

Geostat has published its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2021, and their estimated growth stands at 9.5%, which is 1.4 percentage points below the ISET-PI’s most recent forecast. The annual real GDP growth in 2021 amounted to 10.6%, which is 0.2 percentage points lower than our recent prediction.

The new year started with a historic high for the Khachapuri Index. The Index continued its upward trend, reaching an average cost of 5.77 GEL in January 2022. This is 1.8% higher than December 2021 (MoM) and 23.7% higher compared to January 2021 (YoY). The highest price increase was observed for eggs (47%) and flour (31%).

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.