Jordan’s King ‘Abd Allah has blocked his government’s recent decision to raise the price of gasoline and the low-grade diesel fuel used primarily by the country’s poor, in response to small pockets of unrest that broke out across the country over the weekend.
On 31 August, Jordanian authorities announced a decision to raise the price of 90-octane gasoline from JD0.70 ($0.98)/liter to JD0.77 ($1.08)/liter, and the price of diesel from JD0.515 ($0.72)/liter to JD0.550 ($0.77)/liter. It was also decided to hike the price of 95-octane gasoline up from JD1 ($1.41)/liter to JD1.015 ($1.43)/liter. These planned increases would have been the third this year, under IMF-guided measures introduced to both cut subsidies and reduce the budget deficit. The government raised on 27 May the price of 95-octane gasoline from JD0.795 ($1.12)/liter to JD1 ($1.41)/liter, while on 12 June it raised the price of the cheaper 90-octane gasoline from JD0.62 ($0.87)/ liter to JD0.70 ($0.98)/ liter. (CONTINUED - 347 WORDS)
