FROM THE EDITOR

Jemal Inaishvili

Let me greet you, our devoted readers. I hope that after the summer holidays you are ready for discussing serious economic issues. The autumn was full of events in the economic sphere.

First of all, these are the processes taking place in the world economy – drop in oil prices and the changes taking place on the international goods market. Also important are the rating assessments of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank concerning the current economic reforms in the country, the problems of our economy’s growth in conditions of the Russian economic embargo, as well as bringing into effect of the new Customs Code and the customs taxes’ tariff scale, which, I hope, will seriously contribute to the development of our economy. In the article “The World Economy Stumbled at the Finish of 2006” we present you a broad review of the world economy and the last quarter’s forecasts for both commodity and currency exchanges.
As in September the oil issue became the subject of a serious discussion, in the article “Fuel – Honk and Reality” we present you a detailed analysis as to how this market is shaped and managed in the world, and particularly in Georgia, as well as the specialist’s opinions and the forecast.
The problems of economic education in the world and, naturally, at the University’s reformed Faculty of Economy and Business are also important. Nino Arveladze’s article “Business Schools” is devoted to these problems and novelties. Today the subject of Abkhazia is particularly important. We present you the exclusive material of a century’s standing from the viewpoint of economic and demographic statistics, which describes the then demographic situation in this most beautiful part of Georgia, and it will be the answer to those Russian and ostensibly Abkhazian politicians that are deliberately trying to distort the facts.
In our opinion, interesting is the rating of the world’s largest countries and their prospects, reflections on the future political and economic balance in the world, the chances of different countries and how strong is the position of Georgia’s allies and protectors now and in the future.
We also present you the statistics of the Georgian and the world market.
We traditionally present you scientific discussions on various relevant subjects, such as the issue of improvement of the investment climate, regional economy’s development, the modern model of protectionism, etc. We hope that our cooperation will be more intensive and effective, and we shall not be passive observers in the process of the ongoing reforms.