Petrol, diesel prices in UAE increased

The price of diesel has been hiked by 4.52 per cent with effect from July 1. Motorists will pay up to 1.19 per cent more on filling gasoline after the high-level committee headed by the undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy met to fix fuel prices on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by the CEOs of the oil marketing and distributions companies.
The committee meets on the 28th of every month to review oil prices in the international market and fix prices for the next month after factoring in the rise and fall of crude.
The new price of gasoline-98 would be Dh1.88 per litre, up against Dh1.86 in June; unleaded gasoline-95 will be slightly expensive by two fils at Dh1.77 a litre; while unleaded gasoline-91 will also go up by two fils to Dh1.70 a litre. The highest increase has been made in diesel which will be expensive by 4.52 per cent at Dh1.85 a litre from Dh1.77 in May.
The rising oil prices in the international markets are being blamed for the spiral in petroleum prices for the fifth month in a row. The Opec basket price dropped to $44.32 a barrel on June 26 from $44.88, a barrel on June 24. However, it rose to $45.89 a barrel from $43.21 a barrel in May, in a month-on-month comparison.
According to the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, the transport group, which carries 9.9 per cent weightage in the UAE's Consumer Price Index, showed 4.08 per cent change in May in a month-on-month comparison. However, there was 1.62 per cent year-on-year change in the CPI in May and 0.25 per cent change in a month-on-month comparison.
Though petroleum prices are increasing since the past five months, in Abu Dhabi inflation has been on the decline since March after rising in February to 3.4 per cent year-on-year.
The inflation for the first five months of 2016 was 2.8 per cent year-on-year, in Abu Dhabi. The CPI in Abu Dhabi increased by 2.4 per cent year-on-year in April. It rose 0.3 per cent in May 2016 compared with April 2016, according to Statistics Centre of Abu Dhabi, or SCAD.
The 'housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels' group accounted for the largest rise in the index during for the first five months of 2016 contributing 84.8 per cent to the change.
- haseeb@khaleejtimes.com