Page 17 - GEORptJun18

Consumer confidence highest among young urban Georgians
Since then, the Georgian lari's exchange rate has varied widely, undergoing lengthy depreciations in 2017 (particularly in the October-December period) whenever consumers became spooked and rushed to swap their laris for foreign exchange.
April's inflation levels are well within the government's target rate of 5% for 2018. The most important contributors to annual inflation were a 2.1% y/y rise in food prices, a 2.9% y/y rise in transport, a 5.6% y/y increase in alcoholic beverage prices, and a 4.6% y/y rise in the cost of housing, water and electricity.
Georgia’s Consumer Confidence Index compiled by think tank the ISET Policy Institute improved modestly in March, from -19.1 points to -17.5. The index has remained steady since July 2017, but confidence is consistently higher among young consumers aged under 35, for whom the indicator is 16.6 points higher than older generations.
ISET points out that the age gap is greatest when it comes to consumers’ confidence in their ability to save and to make major purchases either now or in the future.
There is a similar disparity concerning location, with Tbilisi residents considerably more confident about their ability to make major purchases than those from other parts of the country.
The March index also revealed some falling off in confidence about the future. The small improvement of 1.6 points during the month was due to a strong increase in the Present Situation Index, while the Index of Expectations declined slightly.
4.2.2 PPI dynamic
Georgia’s industrial PPI up 7.8% y/y in April
Georgia’s Producer Price Index (PPI) for industrial products recorded a robust 7.8% y/y advance in April, compared to the 6.5% registered in March, data from statistics office Geostat showed.
The growth was driven by a 6.8% annual increase in the manufacturing
17 GEORGIA Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com