Ivory Coast slashes oil prices after protests: PM

ABIDJAN (AFP) - Ivory Coast on Sunday slashed fuel prices after widespread protests and cut ministers' salaries by half to heed the common man's "cries of distress," Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said. "Hearing the cries of distress of the people, the government has decided to fix the price of diesel at 685 CFA francs (1.6 dollars, one euro) a litre instead of 785," Soro said after an emergency cabinet meeting. He said the price of petrol was now fixed at 495 CFA francs a litre against 550 and added that ministers' salaries in the world's top cocoa grower would be cut by half in a sweeping effort to trim government spending. Ivory Coast's economic heart Abidjan was crippled by a transport strike last week over fuel price hikes. On July 7, Ivory Coast hiked diesel prices by 44 percent and petrol prices by 29 percent. The... [read full story]