The Indonesian government finally announced new fuel oil prices nationwide on Saturday, with average increase of 126 percent.

According to an announcement made by Coordinating Minister for Economy Aburizal Bakrie, premium gasoline hits to 4,500 rupiah ( about 0.45 US dollar) per liter, diesel oil 4,300 rupiah (0.43 US dollar) per liter and kerosene 2,000 rupiah (0.2 US dollar) per liter.

A few hours before the government announced the new fuel prices, university students in many big cities of the country, such as Lampung, North Sumatran city of Medan and South Sulawesi city of Makassar were still mounting rallies and demonstrations protesting the imminent fuel oil price hike, Antara news agency reported.

In Makassar, the students burned down used tires on the streets, while the government had to sharply raise fuel oil prices to save the state budget for the sake of the country's economy following the world crude oil price hikes.

The new fuel oil prices, Aburizal Bakrie said, were effective as of Saturday at 00:00 hours. He also said fuel on the domestic market could not be sold abroad or accumulated.

Before the announcement, a liter of premium gasoline cost 2,400 rupiah, a liter of automotive diesel oil 2,200 rupiah, and a liter of kerosene only 700 rupiah.

Source: Xinhua