ERB maintains K31 per litre
ERB wrote;
During the period under review, both prices of oil on the international market and the exchange rate between the kwacha and the United States Dollar remained fairly stable.
Since the last fuel price review on 29th February 2024, the price of petrol and kerosene increased by 0.94% and 0.33%, respectively, while diesel reduced by 1.96%.
Specifically, petrol increased from U$$90.41/bbl to US$91.26/bbl, kerosene increased from US$97.81/bbl to US$98.13/bbl. while diesel declined from US$100.48/bbl to
US$ 98.5 |/bbl.,
The overall stability in oil prices was mainly due to marginal increase in demand for petroleum products from major consumers such as China and the United States of America.
The impact of the announcement that the Organisation for the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)+ would extend its production cuts
from March to June 2024, did not take effect during the review period.
Further, some OPEC members
supplied beyond the allocated quotas which helped to stabilise the prices on the global market.
In addition, the Kwacha recouped its losses against the United States Dollar mainly driven by the positive
sentiments attributed to the news that an agreement had been reached on the debt restructuring.
This has resulted in the Kwacha improving its performance against major currencies in the past few days.
The kwacha appreciated by 1.75%, from K25.74/US$ in February 2024 to K25.09/US$ in March 2024.
During the month of April 2024, it is expected that the positive news of debt restructuring wil provide a level
of stability in the foreign exchange market that will see the Kwacha have reduced exposure to extreme
trading volatility the short to medium term.
The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has therefore maintained the pump prices of Petrol, Diesel,
Kerosene and Jet A-1 for April 2024.
The prices for Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene and Jet A-l will continue
to be K31.12/litre; K28.78/litre; K20.44/litre; and K28.23/litre respectively.
The prices have been maintained because the changes in the two key fundamentals that determine
domestic prices of fuel, that is, international oil prices and exchange rate of the Kwacha against the
United States Dollar, resulted in changes in the domestic fuel prices that were below the set
threshold of 2.5 percent.
