Oil prices questioned

The price of oil-based products continues to rise, even prompting President Mikheil Saakashvili to mention them in his parliamentary report.

Oil companies explain that the price of oil is rising worldwide, although critics suggest that high prices in Georgia are the result of poor competition between importers of oil products.

Some analysts suggest that the price of oil products should be approximately 40 tetri lower in Georgia, and that high prices are thanks to price-fixing in the industry.

Analyst Aleksandre Tvalchrelidze, speaking to Kvela Siakhle, notes that there is little transparency in the ownership of some companies, but the fact that they increase prices simultaneously gives ground to suggest that they are in cahoots.