Motorists and other consumers of petroleum products have been spared an increase in fuel prices which should have taken effect this week. The increasing price of crude oil on the world market over the past few weeks had necessitated an upward adjustment. The commodity has been selling above the 80-dollar a barrel mark for some weeks now. As at Monday afternoon, the commodity was going for 82 dollars 90 cents. Joy Business earlier this month reported that prices of petroleum products could go up by 10 percent if the government failed to absorb the anticipated increase. The latest review on the website of the National Petroleum Authority as per the twice weekly review however indicates that the prices will remain unchanged for at least the next two weeks from October 16. It is not clear how much the government is having to pay for subsidizing for the two weeks, but it is believed to be somewhere in the region of $4 million. Joy Business has also learnt that the government’s decision to hedge its purchases over the next year is one of the key factors that influenced the subsidy. Source: Joy News/Ghana