Business News
Malaysia cuts fuel prices for second time in two months
Sep 24, 2008, 11:03 GMT
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia announced Wednesday it will cut retail fuel prices for the second time in two months to ease soaring inflation.
From Thursday, the retail prices of petrol and diesel will be reduced by 4 per cent to 2.45 ringgit (0.74 cents) and 2.40 ringgit (0.73 cents) a liter respectively, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Abdullah said the reduction, which comes ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, would hopefully ease the burden of the people who have been hit by a decades-high inflation rate of 8.5 per cent in August.
'The government is aware that many will be making long trips back to their home towns to celebrate the festival,' he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.
'Hence, it is our hope that this price reduction will ease the burdens of the people, especially in celebrating (Eid al-Fitr),' said Abdullah.
The religious festival is celebrated by the country's majority ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people.
With the reduction, the government is giving a public subsidy of 33 sen (9.7 cents) per liter on gasoline.
This is the second price cut since the government hiked petrol prices by a whopping 41 per cent and diesel by 63 per cent in early June to offset a high subsidy bill.
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