Who Owned Georgia English.pdf

ut we are only partly correct. The Georgian gas market imitatesthe western market when prices increase, but when prices godown in the west, they stay up in Georgia. 178 We take it for grantedthat regardless of where we fill our tanks, the price is the sameacross the board. When all the market players have analogousgas prices and the industry characteristics 179 are conducive tosuccessful coordination, it’s hard to say collusive agreementsaren’t being made to control the market. Such a condition leadseconomic experts 180 to believe there is a coordinated effort bythe country’s main gasoline companies to control the market bykeeping prices inflated and preventing private competition. Oiland oil products are the largest group of imported commoditiesin Georgia. In 2011, their imports amounted to USD 894 million,or 13% of total imports 181 . The lack of a genuinely competitivemarket structure is no good for an economy that badly needsinvigoration. Those rusty Russian tankers selling syphoned gason the side of roads have been replaced by an oligopolistic fuelmarket.Lukoil Georgia arrived in Georgia in March 2002 and is aRussian owned company registered in the Netherlands as Lukoil178 The Dynamics of Petrol (Regular) and Platts Prices. TI Report onCompetition Policy in Georgia p.30 http://transparency.ge/sites/default/files/post_attachments/Report%20-%20Competition%20Policy%20in%20Georgia.pdf Accessed 05/12/2012179 Product homogeneity, readily observed price adjustments, formal and/orinformal entry barriers, high concentration, stable and inelastic demand and,moreover, no effective state supervision of competition is done over the last 7years.180 Interview with Dr. Nodar khaduri, TSU Professor and Minister of Finance,September 2012;Interview with Dr. David Narmania, Minister of Regional Developmentand Infrastructure, September, 2012; Transparency International GoerigaReport on Competition Policy in Georgia, August, 2012, p.30, http://www.transparency.ge/en/post/report/tig-publishes-report-on-competition-ingeorgiaAccessed 05/12/2012181 Source: The National Statistics Office of Georgia, http://www.geostat.ge/cms/site_images/_files/georgian/bop/External%20Trade%20of%20Georgia%20in%202011-Geo.pdf. Accessed 05/12/201244