ISET-PI likes to keep tradition and cook up a New Year’s Supra Index for our readers. The Index shows the cost of a standard festive supra meal for a family of five to six people in each region of Georgia. Traditional dishes included in our calculations are: mtsvadi, satsivi (chicken in walnut sauce), khachapuri, trout, tabaka (fried) chicken, olivie salad, pkhali, cucumber&tomato salad, and for desert, fruit and gozinaki (caramelized walnuts fried in honey).

Geostat updated its preliminary estimate of real GDP growth for the first and second quarters of 2017. The Q1 and Q2 GDP growth estimates were revised upward by 5.3% and 4.9%, respectively (0.2% higher than initial estimates). The third quarter estimates remained unchanged so far.

In the middle of December, food prices maintained an upward trend, as ISET’s Retail Food Price Index increased by 2.2%, compared to mid-November 2017. It turns out that the holidays will cost more in 2017, compared to December 2016, as we recorded a significant 10.9% y/y increase in food prices.

The Khachapuri Index continued its upward trend in November 2017, with the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri reaching 3.70 GEL. This is 1.8% higher month-on-month (compared to October 2017), and 7.1% higher year-on-year (compared to November 2016).

2017 is shaping up as one of the best years in Georgia’s post-2008 crisis history. The economy is expected to expand by about 5%, beating early expectations and official forecasts by the likes of the IMF and the World Bank. Based on updated GeoStat figures for Q1 and Q2, ISET-PI’s annual growth forecast currently stands at 4.9%. Even that figure is likely to be revised upwards if Q3 growth turns out to be higher than suggested by GeoStat’s preliminary estimate of 4.4%.