Petrol price increased

The Angolan government has increased the price of petrol by a seven US cents a litre, news reports said on Monday. Angolan reports said the increase was part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) demand that the government end state subsidies on fuel. The government last raised fuel prices in April. The country could qualify for IMF-assisted loans and other technical help if it meets the targets set by the fund. The state-run newspaper 'Jornal de Angola' reported that Monday's hike reduced the amount of subsidy the government pays to the state petroleum company, Sonangol to 36 percent from 48 percent. The subsidy costs Angola, reports said, US $10 million a month. Analysts said that Angola pumped an estimated 750,000 barrels of oil a day almost entirely from offshore wells that have been untouched by the country's civil war. In a separate development reports on Monday said that public school teachers in Angola had gone on an open-ended strike to demand an increase in salaries in line with inflation. The strike, reports said, affected primary and secondary schools, as well as university. Inflation was at 49.5 percent in the first half of 2001, the finance ministry was quoted as saying. The teachers' union said the inflation had caused a dramatic drop in purchasing power in Angola. "The strike will continue until our demands are met," university teachers' union president Carlinhos Zassala was quoted as saying.