President López Obrador announced the price cap in July of last year, in together with the creation of Gas Bienestar, after acknowledging that he had not fulfilled his promise to keep the prices of liquefied petroleum gas below inflation, one of his main campaign commitments.
The measure was initially proposed for six months and last January an extension was authorized for a similar period, valid until next July.
The federal government resorted to establishing maximum prices due to the increase in the price of LP gas, determined largely by the international price of the molecule, which, like the rest of the energy sources, has experienced strong shocks in its price.
The price of LP gas began with an upward trend in February of last year, before the rest of the energy sources, such as oil or gasoline, saw a big spike. This as a consequence of a late effect in the slowdown in US gas production due to low demand during the pandemic and a considerable increase in industrial demand from the Asian continent. Now, the war between Russia and the Ukraine has exacerbated the price due to an increase in European consumption from other parts of the world – mainly from the United States – due to Russian import bans.
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