Alarm over petrol price rise

International oil prices above USD 70 per barrel took their toll on domestic Cypriot prices on Thursday, as all retailers pushed up the price of both petrol and diesel.

Unleaded 95 petrol rose to 56.6 Cyprus cents per litre, from 53.9/litre.

Unleaded 98 rose to 58.5 from 55.8/litre.

Diesel, meanwhile rose to 53.9/litre from 51.9/litre.

Opposition parties are using the pre-election period to try to pin the blame on the government.

However, Cyprus is merely being hit by global developments that are pushing up prices, including low spare capacity at oil refineries in the US and a risk premium on crude prices because of fears over supplies from Iran and Nigeria.