Decreasing fuel price helps commodity price drop and double-cropping

A drop in fuel oil price helped reduce the prices of commodities, during the second week of December 2022.
On 9 December, the retail reference price of Octane 92 per litre dropped to K1,830 and regular diesel fell to K2,125 per litre in Yangon. The price of Octane 92 rose to K2,605 per litre and regular diesel to K3,245 per litre on 31 August 2022.
In particular, fuel oil is used to pump water for agriculture sector in double-cropping, which will be planted as a spring crop after the monsoon paddy was harvested.
According to the farmers, the significant drop in price of fuel oil during the time of double-cropping, will bring benefits to them.
Among the claims regarding the high price of cooking oil and fuel, a claim concerning the high fuel price became less in time of price dropping. In the markets, it is often referred that the cause of high goods price was the freight charges. Meantime, it is no longer possible to justify the increase in commodity prices on fuel oil, due to a fall in its price.
In the same way, people in Yangon said that most of the taxis are asking for higher fares in the city referring the high price of Octane fuel. No car fares were reduced when fuel oil prices slump. A few taxis offered a little cheaper price since there are natural gas used vehicles in them.
Most passengers who ride a taxi were directly affected by the increased car fares due to the increase in fuel prices before. Since the drop in fuel prices, it has not been possible to pay the same fare as before the previous oil price hike.—TWA/CT