The Institute of Energy Security (IES) has predicted a 3 percent increase in fuel prices next week.
According to the Institute, due to current developments around the world, it is likely prices for the next pricing window will go up.
“If you look at the crude oil price at the world market, the cedi dollar ratio, the exchange rate, and take into consideration the unfinished product price at the world market, putting all these things together we can confidently say that prices are expected to go up by around 3%,” Principal Research Analyst at the IES Richmond Rockson stated.
Prices of some petroleum products went up by about 11 percent for the first pricing window in January this year.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta however as part of his short to medium term decisions, assured that consumers will experience an immediate halt in the increase of fuel prices.
Richmond Rockson says government must intervene to prevent an increase in fuel price.
“When you look at the energy that went into use in December 2015, all the levies that government increased at the time, the purpose of that levy was to stabilize price of petroleum. But in the last four windows prices have gone up and as we speak it’s about GH¢4.40 p on the average.”
“This is the time that we think it’s fair for government to come in with the issue of such revenues and deal with the matter,” he added.
World Oil Market Prices
Over the last fifteen days, the average Brent crude price rose from $55.20 per barrel to $55.90 per barrel.
This represented an increase of 1.25% following reports of OPEC producers fulfilling their pledge to hold back production in January in order to recoup some of their recent losses.
Within the same period the Platts benchmark prices for Gasoline and Gasoil rose by 1.08% and 1.70% respectively.
This left Gasoline and Gasoil prices on the world market closing at $563.27 per metric tonne and $484.14 per metric tonne respectively, from an opening of $557.23 per metric tonne for Gasoline and $476.07 per metric tonne for Gasoil.
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By:Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana