At the end of January, ISET’s Retail Food Price Index increased by 5.2% y/y (compared to January 2017). On a monthly basis (compared to December 2017), food prices in Tbilisi’s major supermarkets decreased slightly by 0.3%. According to data from the last two weeks of January, prices dropped the most for buckwheat (-6%), rice (-6%), and bananas (-2%).

In January 2018, Georgian power plants generated 1,014 mln. KWh of electricity. This corresponds to a 6% increase in total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2017, total generation in January was 955.5 mln. kWh). The increase in generation on a yearly basis comes from increase in wind and hydro power generation.

Based on November 2017 data, the forecast for GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 remained at 4.6%. Real GDP growth rate reached 3.7 % y-o-y in November 2017. As a result, estimated real GDP growth for the first eleven months of 2017 was 4.8%.

Georgian Consumer Confidence (CCI) continued to improve, albeit slightly, in December 2017. CCI added 0.5 index points over November 2017, and 8.7 index points y/y, which is compared to December 2016. Interestingly, people’s perceptions of the recent past and expectations diverged in December. CCI’s Present Situation sub-index went down by 2.3 points m/m, from -23.2 to -25.5), whereas the Expectations sub-index went up by 3.4 index points (from -13.4 to -10).

In December 2017, Georgian power plants generated 1,080 mln. KWh of electricity. This corresponds to a 9% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2016, total generation in December was 1,186 mln. kWh). The source of a decline in generation on a yearly basis is less thermal power generation.