The Minister of Economy and Finance expressed confidence this Thursday that it will not be necessary to raise fuel prices again after Monday's increase, stressing that everything depends on the global situation.

"We believe that the price, despite being on the rise, has stabilized. Therefore, there will be no reason for additional increases, but this depends on the evolution of the geopolitical situation in the world, which has an influence on oil product prices," Max Tonela told Lusa, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the African Development Bank in Accra.

The governor underlined that the level of prices to the public in Mozambique "is the lowest in the entire Southern African region, therefore, compared to neighboring countries.

Mozambique's Energy Regulatory Authority (Arene) announced on Monday the readjustment of fuel prices in the country, with an increase in all petroleum products starting on Tuesday.

According to Arene's president at the time, Paulo António da Graça, the Mozambican government sought to avoid a readjustment that would put pressure on citizens, temporarily withdrawing the tax on fuel to avoid a drastic increase.

Today Tonela explained that since liquid fuels are entirely imported, since Mozambique is not yet in a position to produce them, the country has to buy at international prices, inflated due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, and depend on exchange rates.

"What the Government is trying to do is to find internal measures of the variables over which it has control, to mitigate this increase. But we have seen such an increase that after a certain point, the Government has no way to do it," he recalled.

The executive then changed the cost structure of the components associated with logistics and also some margins in the price structure that the Government was removing to minimize the impact of this increase, an exercise that was done, both in the first fuel increase this year, and in the increase that happened this Monday, he explained.

"There are countries that have structured subsidies, especially producing countries, but they do not reflect the supply structure. We have to evaluate if we subsidize the economy as a whole or if we find mechanisms taking into account also the restrictions that the state has, arising from its financial capacity, also prioritizing the key and social sectors, education, health, etc. Therefore, this has been the Government's strategy," said Tonela.

The oil products for sale in Mozambique are imported by sea in special freighters, through a process centralized by law into a single public entity, Imopetro, owned by the oil product distributors operating in the country.

This week's price increase came a month after the Mozambican Association of Oil Companies (Amepetrol) called for a price readjustment, warning that state debts to gasoline companies could paralyze distribution at a time when international market prices are skyrocketing as an impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In total, according to information advanced in April by Amepetrol, the Mozambican government owed the gasoline companies more than US$110 million.