In the past year and a half since the pandemic began, we’ve all become familiar with phrases such as “supply chain disruption,” “turbulence and volatility in international markets,” and “in these unprecedented times,” often used to preface news about pandemic-related food price increases across the globe.

On 15 June 2021, the National Statistics Office of Georgia published its annual publication for the agricultural sector - Agriculture of Georgia 2020. According to the publication, agriculture, forestry, and fishing comprised 8.4% of GDP in 2020, higher than the 7.2% share in 2019, but in line with the general trend over the last five years (agricultural GDP comprising on average 7-8% of GDP).

In a recent ISET Economist blog post, Luc Leruth explores the notion of a spatial fracture in Georgia. He wonders whether people will become accustomed to working remotely, with the COVID crisis having given them this fresh opportunity. If so, this could help decrease the strain on Tbilisi infrastructure by slowing down migration to the capital. Will COVID, unexpectedly, convince people to continue working remotely and settle outside Tbilisi in the countryside?

Education in Georgia is essentially the responsibility of the public sector (the vast majority of total enrolment in the case of General education) and has received a lot of attention in recent years with public outlays to the sector tripling between 2010 and 2019 to reach 3.6 percent of GDP. This remains low by OECD standards, however: OECD countries spend on average a little under 5% of their GDP on education.