While the Competition Council intends to meet the distributors of fuels, a study published earlier this week ranks Morocco as one of the countries where gasoline remains the most expensive in the region. A report conducted and developed by Global Petrol Prices, ranks Morocco 78th in a list of countries with the lowest and highest gasoline prices. The ranking is topped by countries where gasoline prices are comparatively cheap. According to the ranking, the Kingdom of Morocco is ranked 78th country with the most expensive gasoline prices in the world, out of 164 countries. In the MENA region, Morocco is ranked third, behind Yemen (21st worldwide) and Jordan (49th), thus ahead of several Arab countries, such as Algeria, Tunisia and Lebanon. On the 7th of January, the average gasoline price in the world was 1.08 US dollars per liter (or 10.21 Moroccan dirhams). The page related to Morocco shows how the price of this fuel went, between the 1st of October 2018 and the 7th of January 2019, from 11.46 to 10.21 dirhams. The first price was registered throughout October and November, according to Global Petrol Prices. «The average value for Morocco during that period was 11.05 Moroccan Dirham with a minimum of 10.21 Moroccan Dirham on 17-Dec-2018 and a maximum of 11.46 Moroccan Dirham on 01-Oct-2018. For comparison, the average price of gasoline in the world for this period is 14.57 Moroccan Dirham», the same source wrote. The boycott campaign and fuel prices The data for the country and other countries, according to Global Petrol Prices, «are obtained from official government sources, regulatory agencies, petroleum companies, and major media sources». Interviewed by Bloomberg earlier this year, Minister Lahcen Daoudi said that capping fuel prices will be applied for one year, after it gets approved by the Prime Minister. PM Saadeddine El Othmani will «sign it any time. All I can say now is that it will be enacted this year», added Daoudi. Daoudi explained that, at the moment, through the new plan, El Othmani's cabinet will «impose temporary measures to counter excessive fluctuations in prices brought by extraordinary measures», the same source says. Implementing such a law comes at the heart of the demands of a viral boycott campaign that targeted three major companies, including the country's leading fuel distributor Afriquia SMDC, owned by Minister of Agriculture Aziz Akhannouch. Although the Kingdom has the lowest inflation rate in North Africa, Moroccans took their anger to social media, denouncing the high prices. According to Bloomberg, consumer inflation has reached 2.6 percent in May 2018, which was marked by the boycott.
