The price of gasoline in Costa Rica will be the highest in the last 5 years after the entry into force of the new increase requested by the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (Recope). This is the fourth consecutive increase of the year and it will take effect at the beginning of April, once it is approved by the Regulatory Authority of Public Services (Aresep).
The increase in analysis will cause each liter of super gasoline to increase ¢ 57, that of regular plus ¢ 55 and that of diesel ¢ 36. This will make the price of super gasoline reach ¢ 700 and that of the plus to ¢ 683. These amounts are the highest that have been recorded for more than five years.
According to the price history of Recope, during the last five years the costs per liter have been lower than those that will be reached next month, the last record of a higher price was in November 2014 when the super value ¢ 757 and the plus of ¢ 720 (per liter).
In the case of diesel, the intended increase (from ¢ 36) will make its price per liter go from ¢ 536 to ¢ 572, which will be the highest registered since November 2018, when the cost per liter was ¢ 587. In Recope they assured that the new extraordinary request of increase that was made is based on the price of the finished product at an international level and the exchange rate.
International dynamics sales price
“Due to the international dynamics, what we are going to reflect internally is an increase in the sale price. Let us remember that the international market obeys two main factors, on the one hand we have those factors that affect the supply and demand of oil and derivatives, and then we have other factors that we call speed that what they do is accelerate the changes in the price in which they are generally related to geopolitical aspects or financial markets”, declared the Recope spokesman.
“For this month we have several of those factors that combine and that result in the increase in the international price. On the one hand, we have the decision of OPEC to continue with the production cuts as it has been doing since 2016 but due to the Pandemic it made a large cut of approximately 10 percent of world production of oil”, added the head of Economic and Financial Studies of the Refinery, Luis Carlos Solera.
The official said that there are situations in the United States that affect the price of oil worldwide and even mentioned that vaccination against COVID-19 also causes an impact because it generates trust in people and increases expenses.
The extraordinary request for a fuel hike is in the process of being analyzed by Aresep, the entity that will make the public consultation on and then approval. The increase will take effect at the beginning of April, once the resolution is published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
