China has raised oil prices for the seventh time in less than a year in response to soaring world market prices, state media reported yesterday.
The State Development Planning Commission on Monday increased the retail price of petrol by 4.5 per cent to 4,160 yuan ($501) per tonne, while hiking the price of diesel by 9.2 per cent to 3,564 yuan ($429) per tonne, the China Daily said.
Local consumers feared there would be more price hikes in the coming months, the paper said.“I’m afraid I will have to pay even more for fuel,” Beijing taxi driver Wang Jialing told the paper.
This is because global prices keep rising, even after a commitment by OPEC to boost production by 800,000 barrels a day.The State Development Planning Commission said last month that in future it will adjust domestic fuel prices every month to be more in tune with trends in international markets.
The decision to allow more flexible prices has been made because China is increasingly dependent on imported crude oil, and local refineries need a mechanism to pass higher costs on to the consumers. – AFP
©--Agence France Presse.
