Iranian proxy groups' recent rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and rallies against the U.S. military presence in Iraq have sparked fears of renewed unrest in the region. Despite efforts to scale down U.S. commitments in the Middle East and focus on the…
Education in Georgia is essentially the responsibility of the public sector (the vast majority of total enrolmentin 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,…
The FINANCIAL -- On January 1, North Korea’s ruling-party newspaper published the results of a meeting with ominous implications. Chairman Kim Jong Un had declared that the world would soon witness a new strategic weapon from North Korea and added that he no longer “felt bound” by his pledge to halt inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches…
The FINANCIAL–Communications company Noblet Media CIS, Edelman affiliate, in partnership with Info Sapiens research agency, presented the survey on lifestyle and financial views of middle and upper-middle-class in the countries where the companies operate.The vast majority of Georgians with middle or upper-middle-income aim at improving their economic well-being during the next 10 years, much like citizens…
The gap closes In April 2020, total generation and consumption nearly balanced (944 mln kWh of generation and 941 mln kWh of consumption), with power generation exceeding consumption by only 3 mln. kWh (corresponding to 0.3% of total generation: Figure 1). This occurred due to the simultaneous decrease in total consumption (7%) and total generation…
The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri in May 2020 stood at 4.18 GEL; 6.8% lower month-on-month compared to April. However, the Khachapuri Index did increase by 24.9% year-on-year (compared to May 2019). At this time of the year the monthly downward trend in the Index is typically driven by a seasonal decline in cheese…
Georgia reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by immediately introducing aggressive measures. Closing international borders, declaring a state of emergency, shutting down public transportation, banning local travel and public gatherings, closing restaurants and shopping malls, and introducing a nighttime curfew—these are all instruments that were used by the country’s government and health authorities to stop the…
A nationally representative sample of around 350 Georgians, interviewed in early May, reveals that Georgian Consumer Confidence rose in May compared to the prior month, by 8.1 index points, from -48.3 in April to -40.2 in May. This follows rapid declines in the index in March and April. The increase in Consumer Confidence was driven…
Economic growth – a bird’s eye view of 2019 According to Geostat, the 2019 real GDP growth in Georgia was 5.1% year-over-year (YoY). This figure moderately surpassed NBG’s, ADB’s, EBRD’s, IMF’s and the World Bank’s latest growth projections for 2019, which range from 4.5%-4.7%. However, the real winner in this race was ISET-PI’s annual GDP…
APRIL 2020: Georgian CCI Reaches A Historic Low, Pushed By Unemployment/Financial Fears. Do Families Have Enough Resources To Live On Until The End Of May? Sixty Percent of Responders Said No…
Ivane Machavariani, Minister of Finance: “GEL 1,200 in assistance for six months is little but the US is giving USD 1,200 to the part of the population which meets the income criteria. Taking into account the purchasing power, we are giving almost as much as the US.” Verdict: FactCheck concludes that Ivane Machavariani’s statement is a…
Verdict: FactCheck concludes that Roman Gotsiridze’s statement is TRUE.…
The consequences of COVID-19 on tourism and in the industrial and service sectors have been discussed broadly recently. However, little has been said about the current and future implications on the Georgian power sector. The worldwide pandemic has already had, and is still expected to have, quite significant implications on both the demand and supply…
In the past several months the world has been rocked by profound economic and social turbulence. The COVID-19 epidemic has forced many countries around the world into widespread emergency lockdowns. Economic activity plunged dramatically in February-March 2020, with rapid indicators showing strong contractions in retail, restaurant business, and passenger transport. The scale of the imminent…
The FINANCIAL -- Giorgi Gakharia: Today we have the highest growing economy in the region, we have the fastest economic growth…
