In May 2023, Georgian power plants generated 1,325 mln. kWh of electricity. This represents a 9% decrease in the total generation compared to the previous year (in May 2022, the total generation was 1,461 mln. kWh). The decrease in generation on a yearly basis comes from a fall of 9% in Hydro and 6% in wind power, while thermal power generation increased by 89%.

The global economy remains in a volatile state amid the prolonged effects of the combined negative shocks of the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, high inflation, and the tightening monetary policy. Although the global economy remained resilient at the beginning of the year, the situation is expected to worsen.

In June 2023, the National Statistics Office of Georgia issued its annual publication on the agricultural sector – Agriculture of Georgia 2022. The publication estimates that agriculture, forestry, and fishing comprised 7.5% of the GDP (constant prices) in 2022, which is lower than the 8% share in 2021, but in line with general trends over the last few years (agricultural GDP being 7-8% of GDP on average).

In June 2023, the average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian khachapuri stood at 5.62 GEL. It is now the fourth consecutive month that the Index has maintained a declining trend, where the price of khachapuri fell by 2.4% (compared to May 2023).

In the third and fourth quarters of 2022, Georgian power plants generated 4,193 mln. and 3,359 mln. kWh of electricity, respectively (Figure 1). This represents a +11.4% and -3.5% change in total generation compared to the corresponding periods of the previous year (in 2021, the total generation in Q3 was 3,766 mln. kWh and 3,479 mln. kWh in Q4).