CHINA SHARPLY RAISES ENERGY PRICES
Keith Bradsher
International Herald Tribune, June 20, 2008
HONG KONG: Faced with increasingly severe fuel shortages and the prospect of power failures during the summer air-conditioning season, the Chinese government unexpectedly announced sharp increases late Thursday night in regulated prices for gasoline, diesel and electricity.
The increases are the latest sign of how China's integration into the global marketplace has limited the flexibility of the country's leaders in responding to economic crises. The government has come under intense pressure recently from both environmentalists and other governments to ease up on its fuel subsidies, which are blamed for distorting global markets, encouraging greater consumption and pushing oil prices higher for other nations.
The government, like many around the world, has struggled to keep up those subsidies as oil prices have spiked in recent months. Finally, despite fears that it will spur inflation, the government raised the retail price of diesel by 18 percent, to the equivalent of $3.58 a gallon, and the price of gasoline by 16 percent, to $3.83 a gallon. Electricity tariffs and the price of jet fuel were also raised.
The higher prices could prompt businesses and people across China to use less fuel and electricity, potentially slowing China's voracious oil consumption as well as its steep rise in emissions of global warming gases. Following the news, world oil prices immediately dropped more than $4 per barrel.
Keith Bradsher
International Herald Tribune, June 20, 2008
HONG KONG: Faced with increasingly severe fuel shortages and the prospect of power failures during the summer air-conditioning season, the Chinese government unexpectedly announced sharp increases late Thursday night in regulated prices for gasoline, diesel and electricity.
The increases are the latest sign of how China's integration into the global marketplace has limited the flexibility of the country's leaders in responding to economic crises. The government has come under intense pressure recently from both environmentalists and other governments to ease up on its fuel subsidies, which are blamed for distorting global markets, encouraging greater consumption and pushing oil prices higher for other nations.
The government, like many around the world, has struggled to keep up those subsidies as oil prices have spiked in recent months. Finally, despite fears that it will spur inflation, the government raised the retail price of diesel by 18 percent, to the equivalent of $3.58 a gallon, and the price of gasoline by 16 percent, to $3.83 a gallon. Electricity tariffs and the price of jet fuel were also raised.
The higher prices could prompt businesses and people across China to use less fuel and electricity, potentially slowing China's voracious oil consumption as well as its steep rise in emissions of global warming gases. Following the news, world oil prices immediately dropped more than $4 per barrel.
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