Fuel prices are rising for the fifth time in a row in Chile. Starting this Thursday, October 22, 93 and 97 octane gasoline will cost about $41 more per liter, and diesel $91.5 more per liter. The Empresa Nacional del Petróleo (ENAP), the state-owned oil company that publishes price changes every week, announced this on Wednesday afternoon.
According to Diario Financiero, a Chilean business newspaper, there is a discrepancy in the gasoline figures. The headline of its article cites an average increase of $41.3 per liter, while the text states $41.5 for each type of gasoline. Cooperativa, a Chilean radio station, rounds it to $41.
Compared with the previous adjustment on September 30, gasoline is rising slightly faster. On that occasion the average increase was $39.4 per liter. Diesel, by contrast, is rising somewhat less than three weeks ago, when it went up $95 per liter.
If you fill a 45-liter tank, you will pay about $1,860 more than last week. For a truck or a bus, which run on diesel, the bill grows faster. That cost usually ends up in freight rates and, over time, in the prices of goods transported by road.
Other fuels are also going up. Paraffin (or kerosene) will rise $24.8 per liter, more than the $5.1 of a week ago, though far below the $281.8 of late September. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for vehicles will rise $13.9 per liter, compared with $61.4 three weeks ago.
Truckers' associations described the situation as unsustainable. The ministro de Hacienda (Finance Minister), Jorge Quiroz, responded that the Government is making "a very big effort" to keep the increases as gradual as possible within what public finances allow.
Quiroz said this week's adjustments correspond to the "minimum legally possible". As he explained, the law requires increases of around $40 for gasoline and $90 for diesel. He also stated that containing prices over the past three weeks meant a fiscal cost of about US$ 300 million.
The minister said the State will maintain direct subsidies and that about $200 per liter of diesel is currently subsidized. He attributed the fiscal room to higher tax revenue and lower spending on fraudulent medical leave, room that, he said, the Government did not have in March.
Quiroz attributed the increase to external factors, mainly the wars in Russia and the Middle East and the destruction of refineries around the world. The new prices take effect this Thursday, and ENAP will announce the next adjustment in its weekly report.
