Georgia is flooded with cheap Turkish products: tasteless winter tomatoes, clothes, construction materials, you name it. Turkish goods are everywhere – in specialized shops in central Tbilisi, supermarkets, and the Eliava Bazroba. Is this happening because Turkey is our neighbor, because Georgian people love Turkish products, or what?
Turkish exports to Georgia have been growing very fast since the Rose Revolution but they received an additional push in 2009, following the signing of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries in Nov...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Mar
01
Feb
08
For the first time since 2007 Georgia is a net electricity importer. Last year the total electricity generated declined by 4% and a 1.3% increase in total internal demand was observed. What should we expect from 2013?
The year started with a reduction of final electricity consumption tariffs by 3.5 tetris for those consuming less than 300 kWh of electricity. This change will definitely lead to a greater demand from households and businesses. How will Georgia meet this higher demand?
Attracting investments for new generation capacities?
As more than one y...
Jan
31
Can Georgia stimulate investment in electricity intensive sectors by providing cheap electricity? To answer this question one has to first analyse the behavior of the wholesale electricity market during the past 3 years.
According to the order of the Georgian Ministry of Energy on the “Electricity (Capacity) Market Rules”, a “Direct Customer” (or one who buys electricity wholesale) is someone who, for their own needs, consumes 7 million kWh of electricity per year (As this amount is approved with basic directions of the state policy in the Energy Sector)...
Oct
19
Economics suggests that competition in a market brings more welfare to a country. Anti-monopoly agencies exist to create policies that limit market dominance and achieve competition. There are, of course, cases when natural monopolies emerge (for example, railways – where no one would build a parallel line to an existing one) and the solution to prevent monopolies in such instances is to regulate the businesses or take them into state ownership. It is, however, difficult, but not impossible, to find an instance when a market is competitive, but where no ...
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