China to cut fuel prices from Thursday

China will lower the per-tonne retail prices of gasoline and diesel by 330 yuan (52.38 U.S. dollars) and 310 yuan, respectively, from Thursday, the National Development and Reform Commission announced Wednesday. The cuts - 330 yuan per tonne for gasoline and 310 yuan per tonne for diesel, according to the National Development and Reform Commission - are the first since October, and are likely to disappoint refiners hoping to benefit from falling crude costs.Some industry analysts said they had hoped that the government would unveil a long-waited revision of its fuel-pricing scheme along with the cuts that would allow domestic fuel prices move more closely with international crude oil costs, reported the Chinese Xinhua news agency. Under the existing fuel-pricing formula, the government can consider lowering fuel prices if a weighted moving average price for a basket of crudes - Brent, Dubai and Cinta - falls more than 4%. The government has never disclosed detailed calculations, fanning speculation over when the trigger point is reached. The price for the crude basket declined 4.01% on May 8 since China's last fuel price increase on March 20, according to consultancy C1 Energy.