During the past 18 months, Georgian consumers have been enjoying an unprecedented period of price stability. Ever since May 2011, when inflation peaked given the state of frenzy in the global commodity markets, inflation has literally come to a halt: since early 2012, monthly inflation rates are fluctuating around the zero trend. In fact, Consumer Price Index (CPI) is slightly lower today (153) than in January 2012 (153.8), and only 0.1% higher than in October 2011 (152.8).
THE STORM IS COMING!
A spate of worrisome news is hitting the Georgian media sin...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Nov
12
Oct
22
Starting from October 15, Georgian consumers have to pay about 5-10 tetri more for one loaf of bread. Many large producers increased their prices; smaller bakeries (“tone”) followed suit by either raising the price or reducing the weight of the traditional Georgian bread. While unpleasant, this change in the price of bread is nothing but a forced reaction to a sharp increase (25%) in the price of wheat in the global commodity markets dating back to July 2012. The question, therefore, is not why bread and flour prices increased. Rather, it is why these po...
Oct
08
Few elections in recent years were watched as carefully around the world as the Georgian parliamentary elections. And few political and economic observers shunned the opportunity to interpret its stunning outcome. The majority view, so it seems, is that Georgia passed a “litmus test for democratic governance” (Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation). A few others, however, consider the victory of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s coalition as the end of the “Georgian experiment” which, according to them, was about combining radical economic reforms and universal suf...
Oct
02
Despite spectacular growth performance during the past several years (averaging more than 6% since 2005), Georgia remains a poor country. In 2011, Georgia’s GDP per capita reached USD 3,215, just below the average for small island states in the Pacific and just above Guatemala. Still worse, more than half of Georgia’s population live on incomes that are much lower than this average figure. This is so because the Georgian society is plagued by a very high level in income inequality. For instance, in 2011, Georgia’s Gini coefficient – the most common indic...
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