Following soaring fuel prices in the international market, the Guinean government has suspended its long-used subsidies on diesel and petrol. The government had used the subsidies to quell tensions over rising cost of living.
The price of a litre of petrol has risen by more than 60 per cent. "The price increase was one of the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund," Mamady Traor, the Guinean trade minister said in a televised address. The government is now trying to compensate by suspending import taxes on rice. But experts say the effect of rising fuel prices on food and household goods could tip the country back into chaos.