{"id":10078,"date":"2014-12-27T21:14:25","date_gmt":"2014-12-27T19:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/?p=10078"},"modified":"2019-03-11T21:18:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T19:18:56","slug":"consumer-goods-hold-steady-as-fuel-price-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/?p=10078","title":{"rendered":"Consumer goods hold steady as fuel price falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Daily Star \/ <\/span>Dana Halawi
\n<\/span><\/h4>\n

Dented by a recent decision taken by the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries to maintain its output ceiling in an oversupplied market, the price of crude has plummeted by around 45 to 50 percent since last June, resulting in the price of fuel oil falling by 30 percent from LL36,000 to LL25,000. The decline in crude outpaces that of oil derivatives due to the additional costs of refining, transportation and other expenses.<\/p>\n

However, despite the decline in the price of gasoline, transportation fees, for example, remain steady.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur price has been fixed at LL2,000 … even after the hike in the price of 20 liters of fuel oil to LL37,000 in 2011,\u201d said Abdel Amir Najdi, head of the syndicate of taxi drivers.<\/p>\n

Najdi argued that drivers would lose around LL20,000 a day if they drop their prices by LL500, especially that consumer prices in Lebanon have remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers used to buy meat at LL7,500 per kilo but now it has climbed to no less than LL18,000 per kilo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumer prices must go down to enable these drivers to support their families,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Najdi said that even if drivers decided to reduce their prices they would not get any other kind of support in return.<\/p>\n

He believes that taxi drivers should consider cutting their prices to LL1,500 only when the price of 20 liters of gasoline drops to LL18,000.<\/p>\n

According to a statement issued by the Energy Ministry Wednesday, the most recent reduction in the price of fuel set 20 liters of 95 octane gasoline at LL24,300 and 20 liters of 98 octane gasoline cost LL25,000. Fuel oil was priced at LL17,900, diesel at LL18,100 per 20 liters, while the price of kerosene was set at LL19,400.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Zouhair Berro, president of the Lebanese consumers association, argued that consumer prices did not go down because of a lack of control by the Economy Ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry controls a few items only such as chicken, bread, gas and telecoms service prices but they ignore other commodities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Economy and Trade Minister Alain Hakim has repeatedly vowed to better enforce consumer protection regulations and launched earlier this year the \u201cConsumer Protection Lebanon\u201d mobile application to let citizens report violations.<\/p>\n

Berro argued that the prices of goods in the Lebanese market are not subject to change based on demand and supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen prices increase internationally, local prices move upward as well but when international prices drop we do not witness the same decrease in our market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the presence of exclusive dealerships, our country will always be considered among the most expensive in the region,\u201d Berro added.<\/p>\n

Berro also attributed high consumer prices to the absence of the national council for consumer protection. \u201cThis council hasn\u2019t been functioning properly for the past 10 years and it needs a decision by the Economy and Trade Ministry to activate it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kazem Ibrahim, head of the bakeries association, said that the Economy Ministry was studying the possibility of reducing the price of bread. \u201cOf course it is not in our interest to lower the price of bread but if this is the right of citizens then we will do that for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Jassem Ajaka, economics affairs adviser to the minister of economy and trade, said the ministry was about to finish its study concerning bread and it would soon meet with the bakeries association to discuss this issue.<\/p>\n

The ministry is also planning meetings with merchants to negotiate lowering profit margins. \u201cWe are in a free economy and the ministry cannot impose any specific prices on merchants, especially that the trade sector contributes around 16 percent of GDP and we want to protect it,\u201d Ajaka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if merchants reduce their profit margins they will benefit because consumers will buy more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Consumer prices in Lebanon have remained unchanged despite a marked decline in fuel costs following a drop in international oil prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[273,101,100,773,98],"class_list":["post-10078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1","tag-273","tag-101","tag-100","tag-773","tag-interviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/376780_img650x420_img650x420_crop.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paTyQg-2Cy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10078"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10082,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10078\/revisions\/10082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jassemajaka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}