A few days ago, fuel prices (gasolene, diesel) were raised about 50 to 80 percent, to bring them closer to international prices. After a lot of protests, the government has reverted this decision tonight.
The decision seemed economically sound; prices were (and now are, again) subsidied. It seems the government imports part of the fuel from neighboring countries to sell them at lower prices... and part of those are then smuggled back to neighboring countries.
I wonder how this is going to continue.
A friend - borin in Iran, but lost his Iranian citizenship because he is a Bahá'í - said that in Iran, they just raised fuel prices a few weeks ago, by a factor of nine! I must have overlooked that in the news. It seems prices there were subsidied, too - but there is a fairly tight quota to how much gasolene an individual can buy in a month.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
