Shy Latvia Dares Not To Ask For Cheaper Fuel

Latvia?s Finance Minister Oskars Spurdzins said on Monday, that he has decided not to ask the European Commission for permission to buy cheaper Russian fuel because of fear of getting a rejection.

Earlier he intended to ask the European Commission to lower the requirements on the quality of fuel sold in Latvia, so that Latvian companies could start buying cheaper fuel with a higher percentage of sulphur from Russian and Belarusian oil marketing firms. The Latvian finance minister decided not to raise the question, since it was already known that the European Commission would deny the request.

Experts believe that the EC?s denial of the Baltic states? request may lead to another stage of the fuel crisis which has already hit the region. Over the last month the price of fuel in the Baltics has grown by 10-15 percent, while overall price growth since the beginning of the year amounted to 45 percent.

High gasoline prices in Latvia have already created a wave of inflation. At the present time this figure stands at 8 percent, which is the highest among EU countries.