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Compiled by Salome Modebadze
Friday, November 14
Medicine prices increase by 12%

The pharmaceutical company Aversi has stated that fall in the official rate of the national currency has influenced the price of medicines; they have increased by 12%, Sakartvelos Respublika reports.

Aversi can’t yet forecast whether prices will subsequently decrease or not, because this process depends on the fluctuations in the GEL rate. Representatives of the company explain that if the GEL becomes stable in comparison with the USD medicine prices will simultaneously decrease.



Mamradze leaves majority group

MP Petre Mamradze has confirmed information that he has left the Parliamentary majority, Sakartvelos Respublika writes.

Mamradze announced that he has already presented a statement about this to Davit Bakradze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament. Some formalities remain to be settled, but in real terms he is no longer a member of the majority party.

Mamradze has not expressed a desire to join any existing party as yet, but will continue acting as an independent Deputy.



No one admits

24 saati reports that Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, has held a meeting with Giorgi Baramidze, the Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia and State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. At this meeting, Fried discussed the mandate of the European Union’s observers in Georgia and suggested that they should be able to work on the whole of Georgian territory, including Abkhazia and so called South Ossetia, as the independence of these regions would not be recognised in the near future.

Fried also stated that everything should be done to support Georgia’s prospective entry to NATO. The two sides discussed the Russian aggression towards Georgia, the ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories, the unfulfilled six-point plan and present dangers.



Teachers and students

Georgian students living in Russia whose studies were interrupted by the Russian aggression will be able to continue studying in Georgia without passing the National Exams if they wish, 24 saati writes. This information was released by Gia Nodia, Georgian Minister of Education and Science.

“We won’t let our students go without qualifications due to the Russian aggression. They will have the opportunity to return to Georgia and continue studying without passing the National Exams,” he said.



Prices increase due to GEL revaluation

Resonansi reports that the decrease in the rate of the GEL has been followed by rises in the prices of consumer products. Almost everything in the country has become more costly; the socially troubled population suffers especially from rises on medicines, clothes and food products.

Analysts suggest that there was no actual need to change the currency rate. It is possible that the change is the result of speculation for personal profit by a particular group of people.

Analysts also suggest that unreasonable steps made by the National Bank of Georgia have created the financial instability. The devaluation of the GEL was inevitably followed by price rises. Imported goods have not become more expensive in one day, but Lado Papava states that the change in the currency rate has been the result of Government bodies’ establishment of their own strategy. Another analyst noted that the sudden decrease in the currency rate has endangered banking stability by causing vagueness and strain in Georgian society.