TBILISI, February 11 – A planned protest march in Tbilisi on Saturday will have the slogan “Prices are suffocating us,” while parliament is probing how prices are set for basic goods such as food, medicines and fuel.
Organizers of the street march said Tuesday that the focus will be on the cost of living in the capital.
The rally is taking place while a parliamentary commission is investigating price formation on food products, medicines and fuel has been holding hearings and collecting input from market actors.
The parliamentary commission held its first session on February 4, Interpressnews reports. Ruling party lawmaker Nino Tsilosani said many people are being forced to time their shopping around discounts, moving “from sale to sale” to get by. She also said wages have risen by 20–25% and that product prices have increased by a similar amount, according to Interpressnews.
The commission has drawn criticism from opposition figures. Opposition lawmaker Tata Khvedeliani argued that the ruling Georgian Dream party is not genuinely aiming to reduce prices, saying that after the initiative was announced, prices for some products rose “artificially” and were later reduced. She described the government’s handling of the issue as incompetent and unprofessional.
The parliamentary commission’s next sitting is scheduled for Thursday, according to Khvedeliani. The commission was set up to examine how pricing works in three sectors that hit household budgets hardest: food, medicines and fuel.
Earlier, a government commission probed the prices set by supermarkets, with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze meeting in late January with heads of fifteen chains after initially raising the issue in a video address during Christmas.
