In February 2021, Georgian power plants generated 692 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 19% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (February 2020, the total generation was 851 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 20%, 17% and 13% in hydro, thermal, and wind power generation, respectively.

The COVID pandemic raises a vast number of questions for economists, though researchers have mostly focused on advanced economies and on the economic ‘scarring’ that the virus has inflicted. Not all, however, as a few economists have been interested in the likely evolution of cities after the pandemic. They observe that some cities, in particular travel hubs, have been epidemic hotspots, while many others, usually smaller, have been reasonably spared. More rural areas have also been less affected, although with strong variation across regions.

On February 15th 2021, export quotas on wheat, rye, maize, and barley entered into force in Russia. Russia also imposed customs tariffs and prohibitive duties amounting to 50% of customs value on these products.

In January 2021, Georgian power plants generated 808 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents an 22% decrease in total generation, compared to the previous year (January 2020, the total generation was 1,031 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from the decrease of 2%, 38% and 36% in hydro, thermal and wind power generation, respectively.

In the first and second quarters of 2020, Georgian power plants generated 2,893 mln. and 2,797 mln. kWh of electricity, respectively (Figure 1). This represents a 1.5% and 9.7% decrease in total generation compared to the corresponding periods of the previous year (in 2019, the total generation in Q1 was 2,936 mln. kWh and 3,097 mln. kWh in Q2).