Syria hikes price of petrol by 40%

 Syrian authorities on Thursday decided to raise the price of fuel, the official news agency SANA said, including petrol by 40 percent.

The minister of internal trade and consumer protection issued the order for the price of a litre of petrol to be increased from 160 to 225 Syrian pounds (about 90 US cents) from Friday, SANA said.

The price of a cylinder of cooking gas would go up by 38 percent to 2,500 pounds, while the cost of mazout would rise by 33 percent to 180 pounds, it said.

In 2014 the government dropped its subsidies from oil derivatives by 80 percent.

Oil production has slumped in Syria since the beginning of a five-year war that has killed more than 280,000 people, displaced millions and devastated the economy.

Output dropped from 380,000 barrels per day in March 2011 to 8,120 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2016, the oil ministry has said.

In 2013 the regime lost oil fields in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor to the Islamic State jihadist group.