* Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras has announced that it will increase its fuel prices. The average price per litre of gasoline will be raised to R$2.93 (US$0.59), marking an increase of around 16%. The price of diesel will be raised to R$3.80 per litre, up nearly 26%. In its press release, the oil giant stressed that these would not necessarily be the final price at the pump for consumers, and that prices could be affected by other factors, such as taxes. Petrobras also sought to defend its new pricing policy announced in May, which ended the fixed alignment of its domestic prices to the international market. The company highlighted that the new “commercial strategy” had helped to “mitigate the effects of the volatility and abrupt rise in external prices” in recent weeks, but attributed the need to “make price adjustments” to other factors, such as “additional imports”.
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