On September 13, ISET hosted Farhad Taghizaden-Sesary, Professor of Economics at Waseda University, Tokyo, and Senior Assistant to the Dean of Asian Development Bank Institute. Dr. Taghizaden-Sesary delivered a lecture entitled Green Energy Finances.

Summer is a good time for traveling to the sea, but now I want you to join me in the journey in time. A memory from my childhood in the early 2000s was the discussion among people about the choice between “Khrushovka” and “Chekhuri.” Households were buying flats and making investments in real estate.

Geostat has released its GDP growth estimate for the first quarter of 2018. The Q1 growth stands at 5.2 percent, which is 1.1 percentage points above the recent ISET-PI forecast. ISET-PI’s forecast of real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2018 stands at 5.9 percent - up from 5.1 percent in April.

In February 2017, Georgia experienced the largest gap between generation and consumption in the last decade. This was followed by an even greater gap in March 2017. The size of those gaps, and the fact that the historical trend was suggesting an increase in the electricity gap, prompted policy proposals emphasizing the need to encourage investments in power generation.

During the last decade, real GDP of Georgia has been steadily increasing, while share of agriculture has been decreasing. The share of agricultural output in total GDP decreased from 6.7% on 2016 to 6.2% in 2017. Agricultural output decreased in absolute terms as well by 2.6% in 2017 compared to 2016.