QCOSTARICA – The roller coaster of gas prices continues with an increase taking effect probably on Saturday, then followed up with a decrease sometime next week.
On Monday of this week, the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (ARESEP) – regulator of public prices and services – approved a hike of ¢3 colones for a litre super and regular gasoline and ¢2 colones for diesel. The price goes into effect the following day of publication in La Gaceta, which is to occur within five working days of the ARESEP decision.
According to the morning television news report by Teletica, the ARESEP on Wednesday approved a drop of up ¢43 colones a litre in fuel prices, that will take effect next week.
Teletica says the reduction is ¢43 colones for a litre of super, ¢39 for regular and ¢28 for diesel. The new prices are expected to take effect at the pumps by mid-week next week.
Given that oil prices on international markets have been dropping and are currently at the lowest in the last six years, can we expect even more drops in fuel prices?
One thing is for sure, the state refinery, the Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo (RECOPE) and the ARESEP are quick to jack up prices, but pretty slow to bring them down.
Thus, if the trend to lower prices continues, the ARESEP approves another reduction, we won’t see it at the pumps probably until October, and mostly likely near the end of that month.
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