Baghdad fuel drops, above official price

BAGHDAD, March 4 (UPI) -- The price of black market fuel in Baghdad has dropped in most neighborhoods but still remains up to double the state-set price.

IraqSlogger.com reports in its weekly "Price Check" column prices for other telling products -- cooking fuel, bread and Marlboro cigarettes -- were flat week-on-week. Marlboros and cooking fuel dropped last week.

Iraqis face considerable fuel shortages, with less than half of demand being served. Like many oil-producing nations in the region Iraq has reduced prices of gas for its citizens, though the 400 Iraqi dinars a liter -- 33 U.S. cents -- is an increase from the Saddam Hussein era.

While the Baghdad al-Jadida and Sadr City neighborhoods remained at 700 dinars per liter, seven other neighborhoods polled by IraqSlogger.com correspondents dropped from 900 dinars to a range of between 700 dinars and 850 dinars.

Cooking gas, which along with heating fuel and electricity are vital products Iraqis need but lack, is set at a state price of 4,000 dinars per cylinder. In the nine Baghdad neighborhoods polled, the price ranges from 18,000 dinars to 21,000 dinars per cylinder.

Iraq's infrastructure has been diminished over the decades of war, sanctions, Saddam's mismanagement and post-2003 violence. Smugglers, insurgents, poor U.S.-led reconstruction and the Iraqi government's inability to spend its capital budget and stem corruption are all to blame.