On 17 December 2021, the parliament of Georgia approved the state budget for 2022, with allocations of around 19.2 billion GEL. From which the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) will receive 593.1 million (3.1% of the total budget allocation).
In February 2022, the cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri increased both annually and monthly, ranging between 5.7 GEL (Kutaisi) and 6.1 GEL (Tbilisi), with an average cost of 5.8 GEL. The latest average price is 28.8% higher than in February 2021. In month-to-month developments, the price of a khachapuri is 0.8% higher compared to the previous month January 2022.
Geostat has published its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2021, and their estimated growth stands at 9.5%, which is 1.4 percentage points below the ISET-PI’s most recent forecast. The annual real GDP growth in 2021 amounted to 10.6%, which is 0.2 percentage points lower than our recent prediction.
The new year started with a historic high for the Khachapuri Index. The Index continued its upward trend, reaching an average cost of 5.77 GEL in January 2022. This is 1.8% higher than December 2021 (MoM) and 23.7% higher compared to January 2021 (YoY). The highest price increase was observed for eggs (47%) and flour (31%).
Recently, Geostat revised upward its real GDP growth for the third quarter of 2021 to 9.1% (by 0.1 ppt). The real GDP growth rate amounted to 12% year-on-year for November 2021. Consequently, the estimated real GDP growth for the first eleven months of 2021 was 10.7%.