Power to be cheaper

Domestic electricity consumers could find themselves paying four percent less for their electricity next year following yesterday's announcement by Spain's Finance Minister Rodrigo Rato of a four percent reduction. Rato also unveiled government's plans to reduce tax on petrol in the New Year in order to try and ease the burden on vehicle owners and transport companies. However Rato said yesterday that he is confident that the price of crude will start to stabilise in the second trimestre of next year and the price of fuel will gradually start falling back to more comfortable levels. He denied that the government was involved in the fuel price cuts by the leading Spanish petrol distributers over the past ten days. Nevertheless, fuel bills over this winter are going to be higher than usual and the extra financial outlay is something the vast majority of consumers are already budgeting for.