According to official statistics, retail prices for petrol grew 2.3 percent in November, and wholesale prices surged 6.9 percent.
Photo: Grigoriy Sobchenko
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Petrol Takes Market Wholesale
The agreement of government and big companies on freezing the prices hasn’t worked for petrol. According to official statistics, retail prices for it grew 2.3 percent in November, and wholesale prices surged 6.9 percent. It was Rosneft that initiated the rising trend, market players speculate.
The petrol prices surged in November after a momentary lull. Although the average growth in retail was just 0.3 percent in June and no more than 0.1 percent in September, the prices stepped up 2.3 percent in November. Wholesale prices lowered 0.3 percent in June and lost 4.8 percent in September, but only to soar 6.9 percent in November.
The growth is generally blamed on the global increase in crude prices, which fueled wholesale prices for petrol. Retail prices were contained by the government’s moratorium, but the traders are evidently unable to adhere to it.
The analysts say the government agreed with the companies on freezing the prices for the time of State Duma elections, i.e. till early December. The presidential elections are yet to be held, but quite a number of traders pretend to have failed to grasp the implication. Indeed, with material growth in wholesale prices, containing retail is actually impossible. If the wholesale prices don’t drop in the nearest term, the retail will follow, the analysts forecast.
The traders say that freezing retail prices for petrol till March of 2008 would trigger a wave of bankruptcies on the market with the oil giants taking over businesses of independent petrol stations at large. Of interest is that exactly the oil companies, Rosneft in particular, were the ones to set into motion retail prices.
“Our prices are determined based on the market calculation. And we would like to point out that the prices at our petrol stations are growing slower than inflation. The moratorium was for the companies that joined it. We didn’t take part in the moratorium,” people in Rosneft emphasized.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 26, 2007
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