The data behind the Khachapuri Index is ordinarily collected in open bazaars. However, given the coronavirus situation and the related recommendations, our researchers can no longer visit bazaars to collect data. To overcome this challenge, around the end of March 2020 we constructed a short online survey and asked our readers to fill out a questionnaire on the prices of khachapuri ingredients observed in bazaars from various Georgian cities.

The Khachapuri Index reached a new historical high in February 2020. The Index continued its upward trend, reaching an average cost of 4.35 lari in February 2020. This is 1.3% higher than in January 2020 (m/m) and 22.9% higher when compared to February 2019 (y/y). The main contributors to the Khachapuri Index’s inflation since last year were cheese (36.5%) and flour (10.7%). Furthermore, as shown in the chart, the year-on-year price of all khachapuri ingredients—milk (3.7%), butter (2.5%), eggs (6.6%), and yeast (8%)—rose compared to February 2019.

GeoStat has published its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2019. Their estimated growth stands at 5.3%, which is 0.7 percentage points above ISET-PI’s most recent forecast. The annual real GDP growth for 2019 amounted to 5.2%. The real GDP growth rate reached 5.1% year-on-year for January 2020.

In January 2020, the cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri continued to increase, ranging from 4.21 GEL (Kutaisi) to 4.38 GEL (Batumi), with the average cost being 4.30 GEL. The new average price is 18.3% higher than the price in January 2019. While in month-on-month development, the khachapuri price is 0.7% higher than in December 2019.

In November 2019, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, as measured by the Food Price Index (FPI), drastically increased by 13.4% compared to November 2018 and contributed 4.02 percentage points to the change in the total Consumer Price Index (CPI). In recent months, annual food inflation marked at its highest level since August 2011 (Figure 1).