07
December
2015
Rachvelis, the natives of a beautiful highland region in western Georgia, have a reputation for being slow but thorough in speaking and behavior. Whether slow or not, Rachvelis are certainly not dumb. At least according to their performance in the national General Ability Test (GAT). In 2012, students from Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti (R-L-KS) were 2nd (!) after Tbilisi on the average GAT performance (Chart 1).
07
December
2015
The average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian Khachapuri increased to 3.66 GEL in November 2015. This is 1.4% higher m/m (compared to October 2015), and 9.6% higher y/y (compared to the same month of the previous year, November 2014). Given that it mostly consists of food prices that are subject to sharper seasonal fluctuations, the upward trend in Khachapuri Index is somewhat steeper than that of GeoStat’s official Consumer Price Index (CPI).
04
December
2015
According to recently released statistics, the Georgian economy continued on a stable trajectory of low- single-digit growth in September and October. The rapid growth estimates for October show 3% GDP growth, definitely an improvement over the 2.2% growth in September. The estimated average real GDP growth rate in the first ten months of 2015 was 2.8% year on year.
16
November
2015
The Georgian Government’s pride and joy of the previous years has been its high standing in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index. Investors, policymakers, and economy-watchers around the world have opened editions of magazines like The Economist to see full-page advertisements about why Georgia is ‘different’ among Post-Soviet countries when it comes to doing business.
02
November
2015
In October 2015, the average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian Khachapuri climbed to 3.61GEL, which is 4.5% higher m/m (compared to September 2015), and 7.9% higher y/y (compared to the same month of the previous year, October 2014).
