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igh oil and fuel prices are being met with frustration and anger worldwide, forcing governments to turn to price freezes and tax cuts, among other measures, the Washington Post reported Monday.
The high prices are hitting rich and poor countries alike, the Post said in a front-page story. In Europe, governments in Poland and Hungary have cut fuel taxes and Belgium promised a rebate on home heating-oil, the Post said.
Thousands of farmers and truck drivers in France staged street demonstrations two weeks ago at prices of gasoline close to $7 a gallon, and the government has since offered them a $36 million package of gas tax breaks and rebates, the Post reported.
U.S. prices have risen much faster than those in many parts of the developing world, because governments in developing countries often keep artificial lids on fuel costs, sometimes by forcing state-owned refineries to sell at losses and using taxpayer funds to keep refineries running or to buy imported gasoline, the paper said.
Over the weekend in Nigeria, the government promised that the cost of gasoline would not rise again until the end of 2006, no matter what happened in global oil markets, the Post reported. That followed demonstrations shut down sections of major Nigerian cities over the past several weeks, it reported.
