(Adds Opposition statement)

The price of diesel and petrol will go down by 4 cents on Monday and will continue to go down over the coming months, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said today.

Further reductions are expected to be announced over the coming months.

The minister said in a statement that, as planned, Enemed this week closed a number of transactions which would result in a reduction of both petrol and diesel prices at the pump.

The reductions would come into effect over a number of months and before various previous hedging agreements come to an end.

The minister said these hedging agreements last year guaranteed lower stable prices at the pump in spite of high oil prices.

Petrol prices will be reduced from €1.42 to €1.38 and diesel prices from €1.35 to €1.31 per litre.

This would be the seventh reduction of petrol prices and the fifth of diesel prices under this administration, announced on the day when the price of oil spiked upwards by eight per cent. This, Dr Mizzi said, was the highest spike in daily oil prices since 2009.

Dr Mizzi said this contrasted significantly with the previous administration, which, in the second half of 2008 increased energy prices by 20 per cent when oil prices dropped by 51 per cent.

“ Today, the Opposition does not have a plan for energy and does not even take a position on whether it prefers fuel price stability,” he said.

Prices still fourth highest in Europe

In a reaction, the Opposition said this was deceptive because the reduction did not really reflect the prices other families and businesses in the European Union were paying.

In fact, the prices announced by the government today remained much higher than the European average and Maltese and Gozitan families and businesses would still be paying the fourth highest prices in Europe.

It was obvious that the government took its decision because it could not take more pressure from the Opposition and not because it really wanted to reduce prices, the Opposition said.

It said that today’s decision confirmed how right the Opposition was to insist that the prices of petrol and diesel should go down.

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