Annual inflation hit 5.6% in August — and transport did most of the work

The national statistics office published its August figures on 3 September 2026: prices were 5.6% higher than in August 2025, and 0.4% higher than in July. Neither number is dramatic on its own, but the composition is more interesting than the headline.

Transport rose 15.2% over the year and contributed 1.81 percentage points of the total — by far the largest single push. Inside that group, the cost of running a personal vehicle rose 20.8%. Food and non-alcoholic drinks added 1.72 points on a 5% rise, and housing and utilities added 0.82 points on an 8.5% rise.

Not everything rose. Clothing and footwear fell 2.5% month on month, and fruit and grapes were 6.1% cheaper than a year earlier — which is what an ordinary harvest looks like in the price index, arriving at the same time as the grape crop itself.

Rents in Tbilisi and Batumi are very often quoted in dollars while the bills attached to a flat — utilities, cleaning, transfers, a driver for guests — are paid in lari. When the fastest-rising line in the index is the cost of moving people and things around, a short-let operation feels it before a long-let one does. It is worth repricing airport transfers and cleaning rounds against this year's fuel costs rather than last year's.