Maputo — The Mozambican Ministry of Energy on Wednesday announced increases in the price of liquid fuels of up to 19 per cent, taking effect immediately.

The price of petrol rises by 8.1 per cent, from 32.84 to 35.49 meticais per litre.(at current exchange rates, there are about 24 meticais to the US dollar).

Diesel is now almost as expensive as petrol. A litre of diesel now costs 35.35 rather than 31.02 meticais, a rise of 14 per cent. The largest increase, 19 per cent, is for kerosene. A litre of kerosene that cost 24.14 meticais on Tuesday now costs 28.72 meticais.

There is one piece of good news for consumers. The price of LPG cooking gas falls by 4.6 per cent, from 44.05 to 42.04 meticais per kilo.

These prices are for the sale of fuel in the port cities where it is unloaded - Maputo, Matola, Beira and Nacala. Elsewhere in the country, fuel distributors are allowed to include their transport costs when calculating the final price.

A year ago, petrol cost 24.3 meticais a litre, diesel 18.65 meticais and kerosene 17.8 meticais. Thus in the course of a year the price of petrol has risen by 46 per cent, of diesel by almost 90 per cent, and of kerosene by 61 per cent.