Cedi depreciation, US floods increase petroleum prices

Consumers should brace themselves to pay more for fuel for the second pricing window in September 2017.
It follows an anticipated 7 percent rise in the prices of petroleum products.

According to the Institute of Energy Security (IES), this is highly due to the effect and great impact Hurricane Harvey had on oil refineries across the globe as well as the depreciation of the cedi.

“We are expecting prices to rise between seven and ten percent and this will have an impact on consumers. This probably will be the most significant. The cedi also keeps depreciating. After the storm Harvey, refineries were affected so prices will definitely go up,” Principal Research Analyst at the IES, Richmond Rockson said.

Richmond Rockson also believes consumers must be prepared to pay more at the pumps for the second pricing window in September 2017 which started on Saturday, September 16, 2017.

The Executive Secretary for the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah who spoke to Citi Business News earlier, cautioned of dire consequences on the economy if government does not put the necessary measures in place to absorb the possible shock on the country’s economy.

“If you ask what the net effect will be on Ghanaian consumers, it is to be expected that from next week fuel prices would even go way above what we anticipated and again this is why we called on the government and authorities to kick start the price stabilization margin on fuel pricing”.

Source: Citifmonline.com