The average price of hydrous ethanol at Brazilian gas stations has once again cost less than R$4 per liter, according to a weekly survey by the National Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), which was released again this Friday (19) .
According to the agency, a liter of ethanol was sold in the country for R$3.98, down 1.7% from the previous week. The product benefited from fuel tax cuts approved by Congress at the end of June.
The average price of gasoline, according to the ANP, fell 1.8% in the week, to R$ 5.40 per litre. Thus, the liter of ethanol is currently equivalent to 73% of the price of gasoline, very close to the 70% limit that guarantees an advantage over competing fuel, according to specialists.
Since the end of July, when the agency’s research was interrupted, the average price of gasoline in the country has fallen by 6%, according to the ANP. For the fleet management company TicketLog, the drop was 12%.
The price of ethanol, on the other hand, has accumulated a drop of 5.4% since the end of July.
The ANP detected a 2.3% drop in the average price of diesel sold by Brazilian gas stations this week, which stood at R$7.05 per litre. Since the end of June, the accumulated drop is 5%, under the effect of cuts promoted by Petrobras in its refineries.
The market expects the downward trend in prices to continue. In the case of gasoline, Petrobras announced at the beginning of the week a new cut in refineries, which has not yet been fully captured by the ANP survey.
In addition, average sales prices at Brazilian refineries are above international quotations, which indicates further cuts in the coming weeks.
According to Abicom (Brazilian Association of Fuel Importers), gasoline is sold in Brazilian refineries for R$ 0.27 per liter, on average, above import parity, a concept that simulates how much it would cost to bring the product from abroad.
In the case of diesel, the Brazilian product is R$ 0.36 more expensive per liter.
The drop in fuel prices encourages the campaign of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), which had been suffering from the escalation at the beginning of the year.
The president has promised that Brazil will have one of the cheapest gasoline in the world, although the country is still far from the leaders in this ranking. In his weekly live on Thursday (18), Bolsonaro said he expected further price cuts.
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