Bangladesh raised fuel prices by nearly 50% on Saturday in a move that will reduce the burden of subsidies but increase pressure on inflation which has already exceeded 7%.
Bangladesh’s $416 billion economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world for years.
But the rise in energy and food prices due to the Russian-Ukrainian war led to an increase in the import bill, forcing the government to seek loans from global agencies including the International Monetary Fund.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement that the price of gasoline rose 51.2 percent to 130 taka ($1.38) per liter, 95 octane gasoline 51.7 percent, to 135 taka, and diesel and kerosene 42.5%.
The ministry added that the increase in fuel prices was inevitable given the global market conditions, noting that the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation incurred losses of more than eight billion taka ($85 million) in oil sales in the six months to July.
“The new prices will not seem acceptable to everyone. But we had no other choice. People should be patient,” Nasrallah Hamid, Minister of State for Electricity, Energy and Mineral Resources, told reporters on Saturday.
He said that prices will be adjusted if world prices fall.
