The fall in the price of oil on world markets and the reduction of fuel prices on the domestic market is not expected to unburden the budget of the citizens, because there is little or no impact on the prices of retail products, think the experts contacted by META.
According to Professor Atanasko Tunevski, the fall in the price of oil will certainly have a positively influence on the industry because it will reduce production costs, but he doesn’t believe that it will be reflected in the price of the products.
– The fall in oil prices will certainly have a positive effect on the industry because it reduces the production costs. The question is whether companies in the industry will have the will and show readiness to reduce prices for consumers. I don’t think it will happen and it will not come to a significant decline in prices. Maybe there would be in certain sectors, but it will be minimal – says Tunevski.
Changes in the prices of the products for the benefit of citizens also is not expected by professor and president of the Center for Energy Efficiency, Konstantin Dimitrov, who said that our companies will welcome declining oil prices with delay and will compensate for the costs they had while oil was sold at a higher price.
– We will feel the decline in oil prices with a delay of about two weeks. Companies in the industry still have oil which they obtained by the old higher prices and therefore, I don’t expect some micro changes in the prices of products. Maybe it would happen when they supply new quantities, but I don’t believe that there would be changes. Also, despite lower production costs, the industry will try to balance the situations when the price was higher, but they didn’t increase the prices of the products, with the current situation with lower oil prices. In terms of fuel prices, the industry depends and is bound by the decisions of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and, of course, the condition on the domestic market also depends on it – says Dimitrov.
The situation with the prices of oil and oil derivatives is also reflected on the state budget, which depends on the incomes from the collection of VAT from fuel consumption. But, the experts don’t expect some major changes in it as well.
