Tanzania’s energy regulator raised maximum retail prices of petrol and diesel on Monday, citing higher international costs for both crude and refined products and a weaker local currency, a move expected to exert upward pressure on inflation.
Fuel prices have a big effect on the east African country’s inflation rate, which rose to 5.5 percent year-on-year in February from 5.2 percent the previous month. The Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) raised the retail price for petrol by 5.18 percent and the price of diesel by 2.76 percent. EWURA said the hike in retail prices were caused by “increases of world oil market prices, increases of bulk procurement system premiums and the continued depreciation of the Tanzanian shilling.”
The regulator hiked the price of petrol in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam by 102 shillings a litre to 2,060 shillings while the price of diesel was up by 51 shillings to 1,913 shillings. Kerosene prices remained unchanged at 1,852 shillings per litre.
(Reporting by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala; Editing by Elias Biryabarema)