Mexico to Raise Gasoline Price to Market Rate by 2010

(Bloomberg) — Mexico will increase the price of gasoline sold by state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos on a weekly basis until it reaches average international market rates in 2010, Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said.

Gasoline prices in Mexico will catch up with average market rates as the government gradually eliminates its subsidy, Carstens said in an interview on Televisa television today.


“We are proposing to reduce the subsidy to free the country’s budget and to give a benefit to all the other sectors of the economy,” Carstens said.

President Felipe Calderon’s government increased the frequency and amount of gasoline price increases this year in a bid to curtail subsidies that have cut government revenue. Subsidies will fall 43 percent to 138 billion pesos ($13.1 billion) next year, Carstens said yesterday.

Bloomberg