(Business in Cameroon) - In an interview published by the AIC Agency, Gregor Blinkert (photo), Operations Manager at the World Bank for the CEMAC countries, in residence in Yaoundé, Cameroon, indicates that the Cameroonian government’s decision on June 30 to increase the price of oil products was made “without pressure” from the World Bank. It was “a sovereign decision by the Cameroonian government,” stated the World Bank official, who indicated that he “learned about the decision in the press.”

Gregor Blinkert reacted to the connection made by media analysts and Cameroonian public opinion, between the price increase which took effect on July 1, 2014 and a study conducted and published months ago by the World Bank on the untimeliness of the oil product subsidy in Cameroon. The World Bank’s position was also shared by the IMF.

“You have followed the IMF as well. We did analysis. An important point of this analysis was that the poor do not benefit from the subsidy. The beneficiaries are the more fortunate of Cameroonian society. Analysis demonstrated this. The poor use very few of the products that require diesel or gasoline. Analysis also showed that the poor use kerosene oil. I was very happy when the government decided not to change price of kerosene oil,” revealed Mr Blinkert.

For him, the oil product subsidy in Cameroon “from 2010, it was beginning to be too costly for the State. It was costing 400 billion FCfa per year. For the first semester of of 2014, it was already costing the Treasury Department 150 billion FCfa. What is the best way to use public resources? Must they be used to subsidise the fuel? Or must they be used for investment?” he asked.