BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Serbia’s government will cap prices of petrol and diesel fuel for a month to curb inflation.
The government is taking action to prevent a “major disruption and preserve living standards of the population”, it said in a statement late on Thursday.
Prices of petrol and diesel fuel will remain at 179 dinars ($1.73) and 171 dinars per litre for a month, it said.
“In the previous period there was an increase in the prices of these (oil) derivatives, which directly affected the increase in prices of all other goods and services.”
Year-on-year consumer price inflation in Serbia stood at 7.9% in December, up from 7.5% a month earlier and above the top-end of the central bank’s target range of 3% plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
The Statistics Office will announce January inflation data on Feb 22.
The central bank, which on Thursday kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 1%, said that inflation, driven by food and fuel prices, should recede by the end of the year.
Last November, the government of Ana Brnabic, which faces general elections in April, also capped prices of food staples including sugar, milk, pork, sunflower cooking oil and flour in a bid to keep inflation in check.
($1 = 103.2100 Serbian dinars)
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; editing by Jason Neely)
