MILAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Italian energy regulator AEEG said on Monday it would raised the gas and electricity prices it guarantees for households and small companies for the October-December period because of high oil prices.
Italian households and small companies that have not opted for a free energy market will pay 5.8 percent more for gas and 0.8 percent more for power in the fourth quarter of 2008 than in the previous quarter, the regulator said in a statement.
The average household's total annual energy bill would rise to 1,609 euros, a 4.2 percent increase from the yearly bill calculated at third-quarter prices, AEEG said.
'Italian energy system is strongly dependent on hydrocarbons imports and therefore a strong increase in crude oil prices in the previous months ... has weighed on updating supply conditions, especially for gas,' AEEG said.
Power prices jumped 7.9 percent and gas prices rose 4.4 percent in the first nine months of the year, but they lagged behind soaring oil prices thanks to lower transport costs, distribution prices and trimmed financial charges, it said.
The energy price hikes would hit agriculture, which has already been struggling with high operating costs, Italy's biggest farmers' group Coldiretti said in a separate statement.
(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by Karen Foster) Keywords: ITALY ENERGY/PRICES tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com ms1 COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
Italian households and small companies that have not opted for a free energy market will pay 5.8 percent more for gas and 0.8 percent more for power in the fourth quarter of 2008 than in the previous quarter, the regulator said in a statement.
The average household's total annual energy bill would rise to 1,609 euros, a 4.2 percent increase from the yearly bill calculated at third-quarter prices, AEEG said.
'Italian energy system is strongly dependent on hydrocarbons imports and therefore a strong increase in crude oil prices in the previous months ... has weighed on updating supply conditions, especially for gas,' AEEG said.
Power prices jumped 7.9 percent and gas prices rose 4.4 percent in the first nine months of the year, but they lagged behind soaring oil prices thanks to lower transport costs, distribution prices and trimmed financial charges, it said.
The energy price hikes would hit agriculture, which has already been struggling with high operating costs, Italy's biggest farmers' group Coldiretti said in a separate statement.
(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by Karen Foster) Keywords: ITALY ENERGY/PRICES tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com ms1 COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
© 2008 AFX News
