Reasons for New Year price rise disputed

The price of basic products has risen since the New Year, with manufacturers blaming transportation problems due to bad weather. Some analysts, on the other hand, say prices have been driven up artificially, by monopolies hoping to make economic gain in the wake of the election after pumping money into incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidential campaign.

“They are trying to get back the ‘political investments’ that they made in the pre-election period,” the newspaper Rezonansi quoted economist Gia Khukhashvili as saying.