RIYADH: Egypt’s Petroleum Products Automatic Pricing Committee has announced that the price of fuel in the local market will remain unchanged, for the period from October to December 2022. The move has defied expectations of another raise and ended a series of three consecutive petrol price hikes during 2022, according to Asharq Al-Awsat. The decision also comes amid the devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, despite a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a loan ranging from $3 billion to $7 billion. The price of 80-octane fuel will remain at 8 Egyptian pounds ($0.41), while 92-octane fuel will be sold at 9.25 Egyptian pounds. 95-octane fuel will cost 10.75 Egyptian pounds, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources reported. The price of diesel will be 7.25 Egyptian pounds, while the industrial-use mazut will be 5,000 Egyptian pounds per tonne. The committee’s latest decision comes after Egypt started implementing a quarterly price index mechanism on all petroleum products in July 2019. The mechanism of automatic pricing aims to amend the prices of petroleum products quarterly. It should not increase or decrease by more than 10 percent, in accordance with the international price of Brent crude oil, and the rate of the dollar against the Egyptian pound. In July, the Egyptian government raised fuel prices after steep inflationary pressures in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. During 2022, the north African country witnessed two other fuel price hikes during April and February. In 2021, the price of octane-80 fuel was 6.75 Egyptian pounds per liter, 92-octane fuel was 8 Egyptian pounds per liter, and 95-octane fuel was 9 Egyptian pounds per liter. Last Sunday, Egypt finalized a staff-level agreement with the IMF on the components of its program, and will issue an announcement “very soon,” the country’s finance minister said. “Very productive bilateral discussions were held with IMF staff on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank’s annual meetings in Washington, and significant progress was made across all policies,” Mohamed Maait said in a statement. Egypt began talks with the IMF for a financial support package in March. The war in Ukraine threw its already unsettled finances into further disarray, leading foreign investors to pull nearly $20 billion out of Egyptian treasury markets in a matter of weeks.