IKEA Bulgaria has refuted journalistic articles claiming the prices in IKEA's store in Sofia, which is to be opened in days, are higher than in the IKEA stores in other European countries.

"It is unfair to compare the prices of specific IKEA products in various European markets by not accounting for all parameters of the products in question," IKEA Bulgaria said in a statement Monday night, as cited by dir.bg.

The statement came after some Bulgarian media on Monday raised alarm over the prices in the first ever IKEA store in Bulgaria, based on distributed online catalogs.

Teo Muratidis, manager of the Sofia IKEA store, is quoted as saying that the comparisons between the prices of certain IKEA products in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, France, among other countries, are faulty because the products in question are not technically the same.

"The comparison between the prices of individual products could lead to incorrect conclusiosn, which is why we don't recommend it. The price policy of each company that governs an IKEA store in each European country is different for the various products," the director of the first Bulgarian IKEA store is quoted as saying.

IKEA Bulgaria has admitted that some of the products to be offered in Sofia are more expensive compared with other countries but at the same time the company points out that a significant number of products in Bulgaria have very competitive prices.

IKEA Bulgaria has further stressed the differences in the different European markets as logical because of the specifics of the demand in each country's market environment.

The Swedish furniture giant IKEA is opening its first store in the Bulgarian capital Sofia on September 20th. The alleged steep prices have already stirred outrage in social networks in Bulgaria.

IKEA Bulgaria is a franchise of the Greek Fourlis company, which also has the IKEA rights for Greece and Cyprus.