The outbreak of the virus and the corresponding containment measures have started to severely affect the global economy. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in its Interim Economic Outlook Report (2020) on March 2nd downgraded 2020 real GDP growth projections for almost every country. The largest reduction in growth projections is seen for China (-0.8 percentage points) with a worldwide real GDP growth rate expected to decline from 2.9% (November 2019 forecast) to 2.4%.

Assessment of the water policy needs and challenges to strengthen a long-term vision of the water policy framework of Georgia. Many countries of the Eurasia region have shown commitment to implement the principles of the EU Water Framework Directive and IWRM, and they tend to reform their water institutions and policies and develop river basin management plans in approximation with these principles.

As the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread around the world and has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, the next global economic recession is no longer an “if” or even a “when” event. Unfortunately, it is already upon us. In just the past few days.

In February 2020, Georgian power plants generated 851 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 9% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in February 2019, the total generation was 939 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from a decrease of 13% in hydro, 9% in wind, and 5% in thermal power generation.

We live in a world where the production of a single good typically involves manufacturing inputs from many different countries around the globe. For example, a typical iPhone production takes place in as many as 7 countries, including the USA, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and even Switzerland. This is what is known to economists as global value chains (GVC). The emergence of GVC more than two decades ago transformed the way economists think about countries’ comparative advantage and specialization in production.