Mozambican families count the cost of latest gas price hike

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Mozambican families count the cost of latest gas price hike

3:11 CAT | 19 May 2017

Voa (File photo) / In Maputo, we are talking about "tightening the belt"

Mozambican families are counting the cost after the new cooking gas price came into effect on Wednesday. Many say they were already on the wrong end of a cost-of-living drama, which has now got even worse.

Ana Machaieie is 49 and a housewife. She depends on domestic gas to cook meals for her family of four, and uses two gas cylinders a month. Ana has been used to spending 1,340 meticais (about US$21) a month on gas, but from yesterday her monthly bill will be 1,550 meticais (25 dollars).

She concludes that, with the other household needs, the situation will be complicated, and the only way out will be to tighten belts even further.

We met Ester Machocho in one of the domestic gas sales stations. She had just used the last of her gas on the day the new prices went into effect. The inevitable arithmetic of the situation has driven Ester to the same conclusion as Ana..

On the day the new price of gas came into effect, gasoline and diesel went down a little, but the feeling is that the government simply took with one hand what it gave with the other.

Source: Voa Portugues