BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 30. The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) hosted a mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from April 14 to 24 aimed at improving and expanding the country’s Residential Property Price Index (RPPI), Trend reports via Geostat.
According to the information, the mission focused on enhancing one of the key indicators of price statistics, widely used for macroeconomic analysis and financial stability assessments by the National Bank of Georgia, private sector stakeholders, and research institutions.
Particular attention was given to expanding the index’s coverage. Discussions included the incorporation of the secondary residential property market, with pilot indices already calculated and further steps outlined. These steps involve adding a rental component and assessing the feasibility of extending the index beyond Tbilisi.
Currently, the RPPI covers only newly built residential properties in the capital city. The index was first introduced in 2021 with IMF support.
The RPPI is based on modern data collection methods, including web scraping, which enables automated extraction of data from online sources, significantly improving both the volume and accuracy of information compared to traditional approaches.
During the mission, IMF experts also assisted in upgrading data processing and analysis procedures, enhancing software tools, and sharing expertise with Geostat staff.