Taipei: Despite a spike in international crude oil prices, state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, announced on Saturday that it will leave domestic gasoline and diesel prices unchanged next week to ease local inflationary pressure.

According to Focus Taiwan, this marked the second consecutive week that CPC maintained its domestic fuel prices at the same levels. The decision comes at a time when tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated, resulting in increased crude prices worldwide. After the decision, CPC stated that it would recommend retail prices remain at NT$29.8, NT$31.3, and NT$33.3 per liter for 92, 95, and 98-octane unleaded gasoline, respectively, from midnight on Monday through July 26. The recommended price for premium diesel will also stay at NT$28.8 per liter during the same period.

Under CPC's floating price mechanism, which balances 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude, the average international oil price rose to US$78.82 per barrel this week, an increase from US$69.89 last week. A weaker Taiwan dollar, averaging NT$32.214 against the U.S. dollar this week compared to NT$32.095 last week, has added upward pressure to CPC's oil purchasing costs.

The decision to leave domestic fuel prices unchanged is expected to lead CPC to incur a loss of NT$0.3 per liter from gasoline sales and a loss of NT$1.1 per liter from diesel sales. Since the onset of conflict in the Middle East at the end of February, CPC estimates it will have absorbed NT$15.56 billion in losses as of Sunday, due to not fully passing on the increased international crude oil costs to local fuel prices.