ADDIS ABABA — Fuel prices soared in
Ethiopia on Wednes-day after the government reduced subsidies, adding to economic
hard-ship for people already struggling with high inflation.
اضافة اعلان
There were long queues at petrol stations in the
capital Addis Ababa, with drivers reporting shortages as they tried to fill up
their tanks.
The price of petrol at the pump jumped almost 30
percent to 48.83 biir (about 94 US cents) while diesel went up almost 40
percent to 49.02 birr under the new price regime that will run to August 6, the
trade ministry said.
The federal government — which had already hiked
prices in May — plans to lift fuel subsidies progressively, according to the
Addis Fortune business newspaper.
Prices of fuel, food and other basic goods have
rocketed globally be-cause of the Ukraine war, hitting vulnerable countries in
Africa and elsewhere.
The trade ministry said the cost of fuel for
Ethiopian consumers should be almost double if it was calculated on current
global prices.
“But considering the state the country is in, the
government is covering 75 percent of the (price) difference while it was
decided that the remain-ing 25 percent would be transferred to consumers,” it
said.
Henok Girma, 26, said he had been waiting in line at
a petrol station in Addis Ababa for an hour and a half.
“At most of the gas stations, there is a long queue.
I don’t know what the problem but there is a shortage,” he said.
“Whenever I want to fill up with gas, I will have to
wake up early in the morning or wait like this for hours.”
Businessman Mekibib Abebe added: “Sometimes you can
wait for half a day and may not find fuel at the end.
“The obligation of the government is to provide
fuel, or at least control how gas stations provide fuel properly.”
The Horn of
Africa country of more than 110 million
people has seen in-flation hovering at around 35 percent over the past six
months, with food prices in particular registering a sharp rise.
The global surge in prices for basic goods has also
eaten into the foreign exchange reserves of the largely importing nation.
In a report covering the first quarter of 2022,
Ethiopian investment fund Cepheus Capital said that in December, foreign
currency reserves at the central bank were at their lowest in a decade.
Imports of petroleum products in the first nine
months of the 2021/2022 fiscal year had jumped by 75 percent to $2.2 billion,
and those of cereals by 121 percent to $1.8 billion, it said.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
