When I left Russia back in late 2006, attempting to cross a busy Moscow street bordered on suicide. Instead of slowing down before a zebra crossing, Russian drivers were in the habit of accelerating so as to signal their intention NOT to stop. Understandably, pedestrians had no choice but to adjust their street crossing strategies accordingly.

Soon the Georgian Parliament will be discussing a small but important change, which will affect something as significant and vital as bread, along with pasta, khachapuri, and anything made with wheat flour. The Georgian legislators will be considering a law, according to which flour fortification will become mandatory in Georgia.

On January 20th, the ISET Policy Institute presented the final results of its regulatory impact assessment (RIA) regarding the draft methodology of irrigation/drainage tariffs. The goal of the workshop was to present and receive feedback from major stakeholders on the final results of the RIA. The effort of different research centers of the ISET Policy Institute has also contributed to the study since mid-November 2015.

The Russian ban on Turkish goods turns out to be a boon for Georgian consumers. As Turkey is shifting its surpluses to the Georgian market, the prices of fruits and veggies are plummeting.

Retail food prices, as measured by ISET-PI’s FPI, show 3.4% increase y-o-y (that is compared to the January 2015) and 2.6% increase from the previous month (that is when January 2016 is compared to December 2015). Compared to the previous month the biggest rise in price happened for eggplant (33.3%), tomatoes (20.8%) and tangerines (14.3%).