In October 2014, Georgia’s GDP growth slowed to 3.5% from 4.1% the month before. This slowdown is consistent with ISET-PI’s GDP forecast, according to which the economy is expected to increase by only 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Annual growth, however, is likely to be closer to the 5% mark. Given the sluggish growth dynamics of the global economy in 2014, this is a strong result for Georgia.

The post-communist world lost one of its greatest sons last week – a freedom fighter who devoted his life to the daunting task of cleansing Eastern Europe and Eurasia from the shackles of Soviet thinking and bureaucracy. Like Che Guevara before him, Big Kakha’s legacy transcends national borders. His crusade for liberty and human dignity took him in 2004 from Russia to Georgia, and – in the last year of his life – from Georgia to Ukraine.

On November 6, Vice President for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Laura Tuck, Regional Director for the South Caucasus Henry Kerali, Program Leader for the South Caucasus Rashmi Shankar and other representatives of the World Bank Tbilisi Office visited ISET.

While in an ideal world the qualification preferences of job seekers and employers would coincide, in reality this is often not the case. Besides informational asymmetries (job seekers not knowing which qualifications are demanded by employers) the reason is that employers may be in need of qualifications that are not considered attractive by the job seekers.

Each year top students from ISET receive exceptionally promising and appealing offers to continue their graduate education at some of the best universities in the world. ISET graduates have been pursuing their Ph.D.’s at top universities such as University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, Stanford University, New York University etc. 32 ISETers have been selected throughout the past 8 years. Another six ISET graduates have successfully continued the path towards their Ph.D. Degrees this year. With full support of ISET’s senior international faculty, they are currently engaged in the first year of their studies. Most of them have already done some of their own research being a part of ISET’s “Third Year Program” working with ISET-PI on policy projects relevant to the fields of their interest, contributing to the ISET Economist Blog and taking online math classes to get ready for the “boot camp” experience awaiting them in the US or Europe.