LatinNews Daily - 17 May 2023

* Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petrobras has announced changes to its fuel pricing policy, which will involve lower prices for gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as part of a new “commercial strategy” that would end the fixed alignment of the company’s domestic pricing with the prices determined by the international market and exchange rates. Petrobras hopes that this will protect Brazilian consumers from international price fluctuations, allowing the company to reduce the average price of gasoline from R$3.18 (US$0.64) per litre to R$2.78 per litre, and the average price of diesel from R$3.46 per litre to R$3.02 per litre. The average price of LPG, normally used for cooking and heating, will decrease from R$3.22/kg to R$2.53/kg. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tweeted his approval of the new policy which would give the company more freedom to set domestic fuel prices, reiterating that his left-wing party, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) had pledged to “Brazilianise” the cost of fuel.