ASIA-PACIFIC Fuel price rises in India are imminent but are unlikely to lead to a meaningful reduction in a subsidy burden that will this year cost the government a sum equivalent to 2 per cent of gross domestic product, economists said on Thursday.
In an attempt to delay a growth shock and suppress a rise in inflation that would ravage the incomes of the poorest of the country’s 1.1bn population, India has yet to increase prices of gasoline or diesel this year, even though crude oil costs have jumped by 55 per cent.
