The benchmark retail price for gasoline would increase by 7 percent and the price of diesel by 8 percent, said a statement on the NDRC website. It is the third oil price adjustment this year. On March 25, the NDRC, the country’s top economic planner, lifted benchmark retail price of gasoline by 290 yuan per tonne and diesel by 180 yuan per tonne.

Under a new fuel pricing mechanism that took effect 1 January, China’s domestic prices are to be indirectly linked to global crude prices in a controlled manner. China will adjust domestic fuel prices when global crude prices reported a daily fluctuation band of more than 4% for 22 working days in a row.

Crude prices have jumped 30 percent in May, the largest monthly rise since March 1999, boosted by expectations of a global economic recovery later this year...the NDRC urged the two state-owned oil producers, PetroChina and Sinopec, to increase oil production to meet demand.