Samoa’s motorists have been spared the heartache of fuel price increase with the Finance Minister announcing Saturday retail petroleum prices remain unchanged for May.

Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molio'o, in a statement released Saturday, advised that there will be no changes to the maximum retail prices for petrol, diesel and kerosene for the month of May.

That is the prices will remain the same like last month which means the retail price for petrol from 1 May 2022 will be 3.34 per litre, diesel $3.30 per litre and kerosene $2.87 per litre.

A table included in the Minister’s press release compared petroleum prices for three other Pacific countries including Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Currently, Samoa has the cheapest price for petroleum products with its WST$3.34 per litre for unleaded petrol (ULP) going for AU$1.69 (WST$3.39) per litre in Australia, NZ$2.61 (WST$4.67) per litre in New Zealand and FJ$2.74 (WST4.82) per litre in Fiji. 

For automotive diesel (ADO), in Samoa you pay WST$3.29 per litre and in Australia you pay AU$1.92 (WST$3.77) per litre in Australia, NZ$2.93 (WST5.24) per litre in New Zealand, and FJ$2.34 (WST$3.50) per litre in Fiji. 

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa in February this year warned of the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on fuel prices and the cost of goods and services.

She said these are some of the most immediate effects on Samoa and where there is a large scale conflict it has a ripple effect across the world.   

“Particularly the supplies on fuel as this area is the source of fuel across the world," she said at that time. “Where there is big conflict there are also major impacts but for us here its fuel…”

Another graph also included in the press release that was released by the Minister for Finance on Saturday showed the gradual rise in Samoa’s wholesale price for diesel and petrol from 220 sene per litre in June last year to 280 sene per litre in May this year.