At the end of October, food prices maintained an upward trend; ISET’s Retail FPI gained 2.6% m/m (compared to the last week of September). On an annual basis (compared to October 2016), we recorded a significant 11.3% increase in food prices. According to data from the last two weeks of October, the biggest increase in price was recorded for tomatoes (99%), for which the price almost doubled due to seasonality.

Just like the World Bank’s Doing Business, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, and many other international rankings, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) Transition Reports have typically carried a very positive message for Georgia, Eastern Europe’s poster child of transition since the Rose Revolution of 2003. This year’s Transition Report, launched last week in Tbilisi by Alexander Plekhanov, EBRD’s Deputy Director of Research, is somewhat exceptional in this regard.

In the second week of October, food prices kept going down: ISET’s Retail Food Price index lost 0.8% m/m (compared to the last week of September) and 15% y/y (compared to October 2015). The largest bi-weekly price changes were recorded for seasonal food products such as fresh fruit and vegetables. Prices moved down the most for coriander (-23%), onion (-8%), and cabbage (-6%).

The average price of cooking one Imeretian khachapuri currently stands at 3.43 GEL. Compared to the previous month (August 2016) the Khachapuri Index gained 8.6%, however in yearly terms (compared to September 2015), the Index dropped 0.8%.

Seasons change, and so do Georgian food prices. In the second week of June, Georgia’s major food retail networks (Carrefour, Goodwill, Fresco, and SPAR) lowered their prices by an average of 3.9% y/y and 1.8% m/m. Compared to the end of May, prices moved the most for the following food items: eggplant (-21%), pasta (-10.3%), and coffee (-5.7%); wheat flour (+11%), buckwheat (+10.5%), and garlic (+6.8%).