OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2013. China's National Development and Reform Commission said Friday it is raising retail prices for gasoline and diesel by Yuan 90/mt (USD 14.71/mt) and Yuan 85/mt, respectively.

This will translate to a roughly 1% hike in prices for both fuels.

At the pump, the price of RON 90 gasoline and diesel will rise by Yuan 0.07/liter, the NDRC said.

Retail prices were last raised on August 31 by Yuan 235/mt for gasoline and Yuan 225/mt for diesel.

The government sets benchmark retail prices for gasoline and diesel.

Under the existing oil product pricing mechanism introduced in March this year, regulated oil product prices are automatically adjusted every 10 working days in line with international crude price fluctuations, unless the resulting price change is smaller than Yuan 50/mt, or roughly equivalent to \\$1/barrel. In this case, the adjustment will be rolled over and included with the next price change.

The current system is intended to help refiners reduce their losses incurred due to oil product price caps, which were made worse previously because the government reviewed prices every 20 days and at times refused to adjust prices on inflation concerns.

According to Platts calculations, the rolling average prices of Dated Brent, Russian ESPO and Middle Eastern Dubai and Oman crudes -- the benchmark grades to which a large proportion of China's crude imports are pegged -- had moved up 1.8% as of Thursday from the last price adjustment in August.