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Economy

Kyrgyzstan drops its own price cap after the capped fuel vanished from pumps

Kyrgyzstan's government has removed AI-95 gasoline from price controls it imposed in May, after the capped fuel disappeared from filling stations in Bishkek. The subsidy scheme survives; the hard retail ceiling on the grade it was meant to protect does not.

Kyrgyzstan drops its own price cap after the capped fuel vanished from pumps

Cabinet chairman Adylbek Kasymaliev signed a resolution on 7 July removing AI-95 gasoline from the list of socially significant goods subject to the maximum retail prices set on 25 May, and abolishing the price ceiling on that grade altogether. Import subsidies for AI-92, AI-95, diesel and LPG remain in place through 30 September.

The May scheme had capped AI-95 at 88.9 som a litre. Traders say Russian deliveries of the grade slowed as refineries there took drone-strike damage, and at a fixed low price importers had less reason to prioritise it, so it began disappearing from Bishkek pumps rather than becoming more available.

Kyrgyzstan imports roughly 1.2 million of the some 1.6 million tons of motor fuel it burns in a year. The energy ministry says current reserves are adequate and talks are underway with Russia, Uzbekistan, Belarus and China on supply. The government is betting that a freer price on one grade moves more of it than a cap did.