Mission of the International Monetary Fund at Geostat

Date: 28 April 2026

From 14 to 24 April, the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) hosted a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The purpose of the working visit was to expand and further improve one of the key indicators of price statistics – the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI).

 

The RPPI is a crucial macroeconomic and financial stability indicator, which is widely used by the National Bank of Georgia, the private sector, research organisations, and other users of statistical information. The index was introduced by Geostat in 2021 with the support of the IMF.

 

As part of the mission, particular attention was given to the possibilities for expanding the coverage of the index. Specifically, discussions focused on incorporating the secondary residential property market; pilot indices were calculated, and further steps were planned. These include the integration of a rental component and an assessment of the potential to broaden the geographical scope of the index. At present, the RPPI covers only the Tbilisi market and is focused on newly built residential properties.

 

It is noteworthy that the RPPI is based on a modern data collection method – web scraping – which involves the automated extraction of data from websites. This approach significantly increases both the volume and accuracy of data compared with traditional methods.

 

During the mission, with the support of an IMF expert, improvements were made to data analysis and processing procedures, software was enhanced, and knowledge and experience were shared with staff working in the field of price statistics.

 

Geostat continues its work on the development of statistical indicators, improving their quality, and aligning them with international standards.