China Cuts Retailing Gasoline, Diesel Prices

China said it would cut benchmark retail prices of gasoline by 2 percent and diesel by 3.2 percent as of midnight Wednesday, in a rare move to cut prices twice in a month.

Prices were last cut on Dec. 19. At that time, benchmark gasoline and diesel prices were lowered by 14 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

The benchmark gasoline price will be reduced by 140 yuan (30 U.S. dollars) per tonne, while that for diesel will be slashed by 160 yuan per tonne,, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Xu Kuning, deputy director of the pricing department of NDRC, said the latest cuts were made to reflect declines in global crude prices.

There is still room for a further cut in domestic oil prices despite recent fluctuations in global prices, Xu said.

Prices are down more than 70 percent from a mid-July peak of 147 U.S. dollars a barrel and are continuing to fall overall despite a short-lived recovery following tension in the Middle East and disputes over natural gas between Russia and Ukraine.

Crude prices settled at 37.78 U.S. dollars a barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price was about 40 U.S. dollars a barrel when China last cut domestic prices in December.

The more frequent cuts in fuel prices also came amid a series of government measures to bolster the economy, which expanded 9 percent in the third quarter, the slowest pace in five years.

Source: CRIEnglish