Maputo — Mozambican motorists awoke on Tuesday to a dramatic cut in the price of petrol.

A statement from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy announced a price cut of 10.7 per cent for leaded petrol: the price of a litre of petrol falls from 17,500 to 15,620 meticais (at current exchange rates, there are about 19,000 meticais to the US dollar).

The fall in the price of unleaded petrol was substantially larger. A litre now costs 14,340 instead of 17,270 meticais, a fall of 17 per cent.

Jet fuel declines in price by 5.4 per cent, from 11,344.1 to 10.726 meticais a litre, while LPG cooking gas now costs 12,497.8 rather than 13,290.2 meticais a kilo, a fall of six per cent.

The biggest price cut is for fuel oil, which falls by 19.1 per cent, from 7,448.2 to 6,023.9 meticais per litre.

The news is not so good for owners of diesel powered vehicles. The price of diesel rises by 3.5 per cent from 14,940 to 15,460 meticais a litre. Kerosene too becomes more expensive: a litre now costs 10,450 instead of 10,090 meticais, an increase of 3.6 per cent.

These prices are for fuel sold in the port cities where it is unloaded - Maputo, Matola, Beira and Nacala. Elsewhere in the country, fuel distributors may add their transport costs when calculating the final price.

The Mozambican government reviews fuel prices every month, and alters them whenever the cost of importing fuel, expressed in meticais, rises or falls by more than three per cent, or whenever there is a change in fuel tax.

The ministry statement explained that since December the import prices of all liquid fuels have fallen. Furthermore, the US dollar, the currency in which fuel imports are denominated, has continued its slide against other currencies. Since the last change in fuel prices, on 21 December, the dollar has lost 6.28 per cent of its value against the metical.