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Published : 19 Apr 2026, 04:27 PM
Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury has said the latest fuel price hike may or may not push up inflation, adding that the overall impact will depend on supply conditions and broader market factors.
He made the remarks on Sunday while responding to questions from reporters after returning from the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington.
Asked about the potential impact of a sharp increase in fuel prices on inflation, Khosru said fuel alone does not determine price levels.
“There is a demand and supply issue here,” he said.
“If we can maintain supply properly — and we are keeping fuel stocks in order — then there are many other issues alongside this temporary increase. Fuel prices alone do not drive inflation. That is the key point. Will inflation rise just because of the price of fuel?”
When a reporter noted that all sectors were affected by fuel prices, the minister said fuel still accounted for only a small part of the overall consumption basket.
“If you calculate the price of fuel within the basket, along with food and everything else, it is actually quite small,” he said.
The government raised prices of four types of fuel on Saturday, with the new rates taking effect from midnight.
The price of diesel has been set at Tk 115 per litre, octane at Tk 140, petrol at Tk 135 and kerosene at Tk 130.
That means diesel went up by Tk 15 a litre from Tk 100, octane by Tk 20 from Tk 120, petrol by Tk 19 from Tk 116, and kerosene by Tk 18 from Tk 112.
For the past several months, prices of the four fuels had remained largely unchanged. They were also left unchanged in April. Earlier adjustments linked to global market movements had mostly been limited to Tk 1 or Tk 2.
This time, prices were raised by more than 10 percent in one go as global fuel prices climbed amid the Iran war.
One of the IMF’s conditions has been to rationalise subsidies on fuel and electricity.
Asked whether the latest increase had been made because of the IMF, Khosru said it had not.
“This was not increased because of an IMF condition. We are moving towards automatic pricing,” he said.
“The fuel price has been raised on the basis of our own policy. It has no connection with any IMF condition.”
The adjustment had become necessary because prices in the global market had risen sharply, according to Khosru.
“And this has been done through a transparent process. There is nothing hidden here."
