The nation’s two oil refiners yesterday announced they were cutting prices for gasoline and diesel fuel by NT$0.2 per liter, effective today.
CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said its price cut reflected a 2.68 percent decline in the company’s average crude oil costs to US$82.79 per barrel last week.
The state-run company said the prices also factored in new rates for commodity and business taxes, as well as air pollution fees and petroleum fund fees. The new prices are NT$8.5 per liter for gasoline and NT$5.56 per liter for diesel, CPC said.
In a separate statement, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said oil prices were subject to large fluctuations last week on concerns over the debt crisis in Europe, boosting the US dollar and raising worries about demand for crude.
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Anna Paulson on Thursday joined the chorus of policymakers saying additional interest-rate increases may be needed to ensure inflation returns to the central bank’s 2 percent goal. “Looking ahead, if conditions evolve as I expect, some modest further tightening may be warranted,” Paulson said on Thursday at an event in Philadelphia. Earlier on Thursday, New York Fed President John Williams said he and his colleagues “still have a lot of work to do” in dealing with lingering inflation risks. Several other officials have aired similar comments, in line with the signal given last week when policymakers voted
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