China will lower gasoline and diesel prices by 190 yuan (27.8 U.S. dollars) per tonne from Wednesday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced Tuesday.

The benchmark price of gasoline will be 6,620 yuan a tonne, and for diesel 5,880 yuan a tonne, according to the NDRC.

The retail price of gasoline will drop by 0.14 yuan per liter and that of diesel will decrease by 0.16 yuan per liter.

It is the eighth fuel price adjustment since the country adopted a new fuel pricing mechanism, which took effect on Jan. 1 and the first reduction of fuel prices in two months.

Under the pricing mechanism, the NDRC will consider changing the benchmark retail prices of oil products when the international crude price changes more than 4 percent over 22 straight working days.

The price cut was in accordance with the international price changes, the NDRC said.

The average crude price of Brent, Dubai and Cinta has declined to 71.52 U.S. dollars a barrel, down 5.02 percent since the previous fuel price adjustment, according to the Shanghai-based CBI (China) Co., Ltd., a leading service provider in Chinese commodity markets.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2009)