A Look At The Latest Fuel Prices – July 2022

Since the beginning of June, it seems fuel price reviews have come every 2 or so weeks (even less). Fuel prices were reviewed effective 7 June, then 24 June, followed by 5 July, and now 11 July. Since 5 July the fuel price movements have been quite interesting. You will also observe that the latest fuel price review is unlike anything we have seen in a while. People have for some time now speculated that the authorities could be pushing the prices to get to US$2. Will that happen though? Well, it is hard to tell but all the same, the fuel prices in Zimbabwe are still sky high compared to other African countries. Let us look at the latest fuel prices, plus some comparative and trend analyses.

A Peculiar Fuel Price Review – Effective 5 July 2022

This update came as a surprise just about 10 days after the previous review (effective 24 June). ZERA announced that effective the 5^th of July that the petroleum prices were to be as follows:

The new prices were as follows:

The old prices at the time were as follows:

NB: Here it was only the ZWL$ prices that changed; US dollar prices remained the same.

Magnitudes Of Change

Latest Petroleum Prices – Effective From 11 July 2022

About 5 days later, ZERA came forward again to announce another fuel price review, effective 11 July 2022.

The new prices are as follows:

The old prices are as follows:

Magnitudes Of Change

Previous Magnitudes Of Change

Interesting Changes

This shows us that the prices of fuel in ZWL$ were increased once more. Effective 5 July, the price of Diesel 50 was increased by ZWL$7.89. The price of Blend E15 was increased by ZWL$36.64.

This time around, effective 11 July, the price of Diesel 50 was further increased by another ZWL$45.29. Yet the price of Blend E15 was only increased by another ZWL$17.52 (much lesser than the previous margin). I find all that interesting but I cannot quite point to what it means.

Effective 5 July, the prices of both Diesel 50 and Blend E15 in US dollars remained unchanged. Effective 11 July, their prices have decreased by US$0.02 and US$0.01 respectively. Are we going to continue seeing this moving forward? Hopefully! Only time will tell.

Something Keeps Bothering Me

This is something I have said before but it continues to happen. It relates to this statement ZERA always says whenever they announce new fuel prices:

‘Operators may sell the petroleum products below the prescribed prices depending on their trading advantages…’

Despite this, most operators continue to sell fuel at prices higher than those prescribed by ZERA. Recently I was in town and I saw some operators displaying prices like US$1.95. Why is it that ZERA does nothing about that, especially considering how widespread it is?

The prices of fuel in Zimbabwe are still too high though. This time around yes, the prices marginally went down (in US dollars) but you never know what might happen next. The operating environment is still riddled with so much uncertainty. At least the fuel is generally readily available nationwide.