LatinNews Daily - 16 April 2026

*Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo has announced new fuel subsidies, costing his government a total Q2bn (US$262m) to address the rise in fuel prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. His announcement follows the approval of an emergency law to support diesel and petrol consumers which was approved on 14 April by the 160-member unicameral legislature. The law includes a subsidy of Q8 per gallon of diesel and Q5 per gallon of super and regular gasoline for three months. The subsidy is to be funded in part by adjustments to the 2026 state budget, including reductions of Q200m from the defence ministry, Q550m from communications, infrastructure, and housing, and Q58m from agriculture. The measure, which follows other similar measures rolled out in Central America and the wider region, comes as Rodrigo Valdés, the director of the fiscal affairs department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned against using “broad-based energy subsidies or excise reductions” to address the global rise in fuel prices, saying that “they distort price signals, are fiscally costly, regressive, and hard to unwind”. Instead, he called for “temporary” support, “targeted to the most vulnerable”.

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