EXPECT another round of price increases for diesel and kerosene next week amid the continued weakening of the peso against the dollar.
According to Atty. Rino Abad, director of the Oil Industry Management Bureau of the Department of Energy (DOE), a price increase of more than P1 per liter can be expected in the price of diesel, while the price of kerosene may increase by not more than P1 next week.
Abad added that if there is no rollback, the price of gasoline will remain the same.
He explained that even though the price of crude oil in the world market went down slightly, the peso weakened against the dollar.
“The trading prices of gasoline, diesel and kersone went down this week. Unfortunately, in a matter of five days, the Philippine peso rose by almost P1 compared to US dollar,” Abad pointed out.
“So, when we computed, unfortunately, it won’t cause a rollback. But for gasoline there might be a chance of a slight rollback or there’s no adjustment. That’s what we looked at,” he added.
Last Thursday, the peso closed at P54.7 against the dollar, the weakest the peso had been since November 21, 2005.