Saturday, March 17, 2007
Price of oil derivatives rises by 15 per cent
Economy
(VOI) – The oil ministry announced an "official" increase in the prices of oil derivatives as of Friday as prescribed by the World Bank in return for writing off Iraq's remaining debts, a ministry spokesman said. The increase "came after the last meeting between the Iraqi delegation led by Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahrestani and the World Bank on reducing Iraq's debts," Aasem Jihad told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Friday by telephone.
The World Bank "proposed equalizing prices of oil derivatives to international levels (750-800 Iraqi dinars per liter of fuel) in return for slashing debts by 80 percent," he said. The current price for a liter of fuel in Iraq is 250 dinars." The Iraqi delegation, however, insisted that the country's economy and the citizens cannot stand such an increase and managed to convince the World Bank (officials) to have no more than 15 percent increase in prices," added Jihad.
Labels: Hussain al-Shahristani, oil derivatives, World Bank
