Kenya’s energy industry regulator has reduced fuel retail prices for super petrol, diesel and kerosene in the latest monthly fuel adjustments released on Tuesday due to drop in global cost of oil.
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said pump prices for super petrol will go down with 4.41 shillings (0.052 U.S. cents) to retail at 1.35 dollars, diesel prices drop by 5.38 shillings (0. 064 cents) to trade at 1.20 dollars and kerosene prices will decrease by 4.37 shillings (0.052 cents) to trade at 0.95 cents.
“The Free On Board (FOB) price of Murban crude oil lifted in April 2013 posted at 105.65 dollars per barrel, a decrease of 3.91 percent from 109.95 dollars per barrel in March,” ERC Director Engineer Kaburu Mwirichia said in a statement.
The decrease in the fuel pump prices is expected to bring relief to many Kenyans as transportation costs will be reduced and thus lead to the fall in the inflation.
According to the country’s national statistics bureau, overall month-on-month inflation continued to decline, dropping from 13.06 percent in April to 12.22 percent in May. The decline in inflation was mainly attributed to a reduction in food prices.
Non-food-non-fuel inflation increased from 9.94 percent in April to 10.27 percent in May. The overall 3-month annualized inflation increased from 9.22 percent in April to 10.57 percent in May.
The inflation is still above the short-term target of 9 percent. The average exchange rate fluctuated between 83.27 shillings and 86.83 shillings against the dollar in May. CBK said it will to monitor closely this segment of the financial market.
Mwirichia said average landed cost of imported diesel decreased by 4.99 percent from 1,008.26 dollars per tonne in March to 957.94 dollars per tonne in April.
Over the same period the average landed cost of imported super petrol decreased by 4.66 percent from 1,131.43 per tonne in March to 1,078.67 per tonne in April while the average landed cost of imported kerosene decreased by 3.02 percent from 1,035.44 per tonne in March to 1,004.18 dollars per tonne in April.
The industry regulator also said it has started a short message service (SMS)-based inquiry system for petroleum pump prices where members of the public can obtain the latest petroleum prices in major towns.
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