ANOTHER round of fuel price increases awaits motorists as oil companies are expected to make a substantial adjustment in prices of petroleum products on Tuesday.
“Expect fuel prices to go up again next week. Diesel should go up by P1.30 to P1.40 per liter while gasoline should increase by P0.80 to P0.90 per liter,” Unioil said in its advisory over the weekend.
According to industry sources, the price of diesel will rise by P1.30 to P1.45 per liter, while the price of gasoline will go up by 85 centavos to P1 per liter.
The price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is also said to climb by about P2 to P2.50 per kilogram or P22 to P27.50 per 11-kilogram tank, the sources said.
Should industry players implement a big-time increase this coming week, it would be the eighth consecutive time for them to make an upward adjustment in pump prices.
Oil prices are not seen to significantly decline unless global crude prices will decrease, BPI economist Emilio Neri said last month.
“Well, as long as the peso continues weakening and oil prices don’t go down, then we don’t expect reversal in oil prices anytime soon… inflation always started going down when there were substantial declines... month-on-month declines in oil prices worldwide,” Neri said.
“Until we see a significant, noticeable, very clear reduction in global oil prices, we will not probably see a convincing turn in headline inflation… and it takes a couple of months before local inflation adjusts to declines in oil prices,” he added.
The earliest that the market can see a price reversal is November this year.
Last week, the price of diesel rose by 20 centavos per liter, gasoline by 40 centavos per liter and kerosene by 15 centavos per liter.
Since the beginning of the year, companies have raised the price of diesel 28 times and lowered it 10 times.
The price of gasoline has increased 28 times and decreased nine times, while the price of kerosene have climbed 26 times and tumbled 10 times.
This brings their total price adjustment to P11.15 per liter for diesel, P11.80 per liter for gasoline and P10.25 per liter for gasoline.