The Dominican government announced that, once again, fuel prices at the pump would remain unchanged from those established in March 2022. The government says that the stable fuel prices have come at a cost. So far in 2023 the government reports spending over RD$3.7 billion pesos on fuel subsidies, averaging a bit over RD$525 million per week. The sum varies as the price for West Texas Intermediate crude goes up and down.
About 11 months ago, President Abinader, faced with the events in the Ukraine and the resulting spike is world oil prices, took the extraordinary measure of stabilizing the price of gasoline and diesel for the public. His decree said that the government would subsidize fuel prices as long as the WTI was over US$85 a barrel and below US$115 a barrel.
However, apparently these are “just numbers” since nothing has changed since last March and oil prices have reached just above US$120 a barrel, and have hovered around the US$80 mark for the past several months. And, as a result, once again there are no changes in gasoline or diesel prices.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
20 February 2023