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World oil prices

Antimonopoly watchdog hopes prices on petroleum products won’t outpace inflation in 2018

YALTA, April 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) attributes the recent hike in prices for petroleum products to a seasonal factor and hopes to prevent the rise in prices above the level of inflation during the year, head of the antimonopoly watchdog Igor Artemyev told reporters.

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"April is a sowing season, this is the peak (of the price of diesel fuel - TASS.), During the harvesting season - September-October - this price remains, but then the recession starts. For the last seven years we managed to keep average annual price within the limits of inflation (in terms of prices for petroleum products - TASS) and this year we will try to do the same," he said.

The head of the FAS noted that for the Russian budget, the rise in prices for oil and petroleum products is a positive factor.

"But there is a downside: if global prices grow - we have market pricing - so they also grow on the wholesale market in Russia ... Our task is to make sure that there is a big supply on the stock exchange,"Artemyev said.

According to Kortes analytical center, average retail prices of the regular (Ai-92) and the premium (Ai-95) gasoline hiked in Russia from April 16 to 20, 2018 by 0.14-0.15 rubles and totaled 38.55 rubles ($0.62) and 41.37 rubles ($0.67) a liter respectively.

The average diesel fuel (summer grades) price rose 0.23 rubles in the reporting period and totaled 41.31 rubles ($0.67) a liter, up 1.4% or 0.57 rubles year-to-date.

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