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China raises gasoline, diesel prices

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-24 22:38

BEIJING - China said it would raise benchmark retail prices of gasoline and diesel by 290 yuan (42.46 U.S. dollars) per ton and 180 yuan per ton, respectively, as of midnight Tuesday.

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It is the second oil price adjustment this year. The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, cut benchmark pump prices of gasoline and diesel by 140 yuan and 160 yuan per tonne, or 2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, on January 14.

Experts said more frequent price adjustments show China can respond quicker to international oil price changes after a new pricing mechanism took effect January 1, 2009.

Under the new mechanism, China's domestic prices are to be "indirectly linked" to global crude prices "in a controlled manner."

America's oil price fell to 53.10 U.S. dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday, after crude prices settled at the highest price since December 1 -- 53.80 U.S. dollars a barrel -- on the previous trading day.

China's government-set fuel prices were formerly changed infrequently. As a result, Chinese drivers were paying more than those in many other countries before the price cut.