ISET unveils first edition of the Macroeconomic Monthly Review
By Salome Modebadze
Friday, December 21
The International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET) unveiled the first edition of Georgia’s monthly Macroeconomic Monthly Review on December 19th.
Macroeconomic Monthly Review is a Georgian language publication prepared in cooperation with the National Bank of Georgia. It provides an overview of the main macroeconomic trends in Georgia and discusses them in the broader economic context of the region and global market dynamics.
“We have a regular relationship with the National Bank of Georgia. The idea that was generated at one of our meetings was to have an independent assessment of the macro economy of Georgia that we could present to the general public in the Georgian language.” ISET's Executive Director Eric Livny told The Messenger. Livny added that the main purpose of creating Macroeconomic Monthly Review is to raise awareness of macroeconomic issues and hopefully create meaningful debate.
According to Livny, the Georgian media is not informed enough about the economic figures that Geostat and the National Bank regularly publish. Thus creating Macroeconomic Monthly Review can both educate the media and help educate the public through the media.
The principal authors of Macroeconomic Monthly Review are the Senior Advisor of ISET Policy Institute and an Adviser to the President of the National Bank Giorgi Bakradze and researchers Nino Dogonadze, Givi Melkadze and Giorgi Machavariani. In the first edition the four of them draw a general picture of Georgia’s economy, analyze each sector of the economy, identify and explain major economic events and focus on current economic tendencies.
Tbilisi State University Rector Alexander Kvitashvili opened the presentation by praising the research efforts of ISET. He said the National Bank is one of the key employers of ISET graduates and ISETers hold important positions at the central bank.
In a conversation with The Messenger Kvitashvili stressed the importance of Macroeconomic Monthly Review. He said this analysis is very timely for Georgia and it gives an opportunity to analyze as well as forecast economic processes.
Giorgi Bakradze said the Macroeconomic Monthly Review will summarize different economic sectors together with changes in the world economy that affect Georgia. Bakradze hopes that the research will be interesting for not only businesses but ordinary citizens as well.
The first edition focuses on the economic situation of October 2012. “Economic figures are not published immediately – it needs some period of time for calculation and publication,” Bakradze told The Messenger.
