The Mozambican government has announced a five per cent increase in the price of kerosene, taking effect on Wednesday, but the prices of all other liquid fuels remain unchanged.
A litre of kerosene rises in price from 44.73 to 46.98 meticais. But the price of petrol and diesel remain unaltered, at 61.12 and 56.43 meticais per litre. Similarly the price of domestic cooking gas (LPG) is unchanged at 68.43 meticais a kilo.
The government reviews fuel prices every month and increases (or reduces) them whenever the import price, expressed in meticais, has moved by more than three per cent in either direction. The key determinants are the world market price of fuel, and the exchange rate of the metical against the US dollar, the currency in which fuel imports are denominated.
A brief press release from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy said that price stability results from the oscillation, but with a slight downward trend, of oil prices, and the stability of the metical/dollar exchange rate.
A barrel of crude oil was quoted at 47.58 dollars in June, but by December the price had risen to 63.56 dollars. Prices remain above 60 dollars a barrel, but have not surged to 70 dollars a barrel, as had been feared.
Source: AIM
