The International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET, www.iset.ge) in Tbilisi, Georgia seeks to make an appointment at the ISET Policy Institute (www.iset-pi.ge), a leading economic policy think tank in the South Caucasus.
People face complicated financial decisions starting from a young age. Financial mistakes made early in life can be costly. Thus, Financial literacy could play an important role in sound financial decision-making. Financial illiteracy has implications for many household behaviors. People with the lack of financial literacy participate less in the stock market (van Rooij et al. 2011), choose mutual funds with higher fees (Hastings and Tejeda- Ashton, 2008), and accumulate less retirement wealth (Behrman et al. 2010).
A nationally representative sample of 359 Georgians, interviewed in early June 2019, reveals that the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) improved by nearly 1 index point, from -16.5 in May to -15.9 in June. A similar pattern was observed in the Present Situation Index, which increased by 1.8 index points (from -19.5 to -17.7). The Expectations Index however remained unchanged at -13.6.
ISET-PI’s growth projections for the second and third quarters of 2019 were revised upward by less than 0.1 percentage points. They now stand at 4.8% and 7.5% respectively. Geostat has increased the estimate of the average real GDP growth for the first quarter of 2019 to 4.9% (by around 0.2 percentage points).
In June 2019, Georgian power plants generated 1,198 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 0.9% decrease in the total generation, compared to the previous year (in 2018, the total generation in June was 1,208 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease in hydro power generation (-1%), more than offsetting the increase in thermal power generation (+141%) and wind power generation (+6%).