Maputo — the Mozambican government has cut the price of liquid fuels by between 0.9 and 3.2 per cent, with the new prices taking effect as from Thursday, according to a Wednesday press release from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.
The largest price reduction is for LPG cooking gas, which falls from 63.26 to 61.23 meticais (from 1.05 to 1.02 US dollars) a kilo, a decline of 3.2 per cent.
The price of a litre of petrol falls by 0.9 per cent, from 67.07 to 66.49 meticais, while the price of diesel falls by 1.6 per cent, from 64.55 to 63.51 meticais a litre. A litre of kerosene will now cost 48.43 rather than 49.08 meticais, a reduction of 1.3 per cent.
The Ministry's release says that these price cuts were possible because of the falling price of oil on the world market, and the stability of the exchange rate of the metical.
Joao Macanja, the general director of the Mozambique Petroleum Import Agency, told reporters that the fall in world oil prices "has to do with several factors, and one of the most significant is the perception of a slowdown in international economic activity, resulting from the tensions between China and the United States".
Government policy is to review the prices of liquid fuels every month, and to change them whenever the import price, expressed in meticais, moves by more than three per cent in either direction.
The last time fuel prices were adjusted was on 18 April.
