China likely to cut retail gas prices again

BEIJING -- With global crude prices falling over the past week, another window for adjusting down China's retail prices of gasoline and diesel will open next week, analysts said.

Overnight on Friday, light, sweet crude for December delivery moved down $1.08 to settle at $81.01 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange, while December Brent crude dropped 70 cents to close at $86.83.

December light, sweet crude has dropped 2.1 percent from the Oct 17 close in New York.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, has cut retail gas prices for six times since the beginning of July, the last cut on Oct 17.

China adopted a pricing regime last year that adjusts domestic fuel prices when international crude prices change by more than 50 yuan per ton for 10 working days. This currently represents a change of around $1.15 per barrel, depending on the grade of crude.

Analysts with JYD Online Corp a Beijing commodity e-commerce platform, said global crude oversupply and weak demand through weak economic growth across the globe were expected to continue to damped crude oil prices.

It is very likely that the NDRC will announce another cut before Friday. Data from JYD suggests that gasoline and diesel retail prices are likely to be cut by between 290 yuan and 350 yuan per tonne.

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