ISET’s is pleased to announce that two of our lead economists, Yasya Babych and Luc Leruth, have teamed up to create their latest blog (Balancing ‘Maintenance’ and ‘Investment’) alongside Christiane Roehler, a Senior Economist at IMF. Their blog is currently available directly on the IMF’s blog platform.

In April 2021, Georgian power plants generated 825 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 13% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (April 2020, the total generation was 944 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 4% in hydropower generation, as well as, from decrease in the generation of thermal and wind power by 56% and 18%, respectively.

In a recent ISET Economist blog post, Luc Leruth explores the notion of a spatial fracture in Georgia. He wonders whether people will become accustomed to working remotely, with the COVID crisis having given them this fresh opportunity. If so, this could help decrease the strain on Tbilisi infrastructure by slowing down migration to the capital. Will COVID, unexpectedly, convince people to continue working remotely and settle outside Tbilisi in the countryside?

Geostat has released its GDP growth estimate for the first quarter of 2021. The Q1 growth stands at -4.2%, which is 1.2 percentage points above the recent ISET-PI forecast. ISET-PI’s forecast of real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2021 stands at 12.2% -up from 11% in April. The third-quarter growth forecast currently stands at 3.3%.

Salome Gelashvili recently became a member of a working group under the Agrarian Issues Committee of the Georgian parliament. The composition of the working group, members of which include the Georgian Farmers Association (GFA), REC Caucasus, and ISET representatives amongst others, was approved on 20 May 2021.