Pakistan may face another round of petrol price hikes in the last 15 days of August, ranging from Rs12 to Rs22 per litre, due to rising global commodity prices. Tahir Abbas, the Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited, suggested that if international oil prices continue to increase instead of stabilizing, the government could announce even larger price hikes beyond the expected range.
Earlier in August 2023, the government had already raised petrol and diesel prices by nearly Rs20 per litre each, bringing local prices to around Rs273 per litre, as per the conditions of an IMF loan.
This move was made to pass on the burden of rising international commodity prices to local consumers rather than subsidizing, to cope with challenging economic times.
Abbas further mentioned that a potential increase of Rs20-22 per litre for diesel and Rs12-13 per litre for petrol is being considered for the latter half of August. Refined product prices have surged by $13 per barrel in the past 15 days, reaching $111 per barrel, while petrol prices have risen by $7 per barrel to $97 per barrel during the same period.
