The Hungarian government will increase household natural gas prices by an average 5.8% from April 1, the Ministry of Economy said in a release Thursday.
Nonresidential gas prices will rise by an average 5.2%, the ministry added.
The release noted that the Hungarian Energy Office MEH initially called for a steeper price increase from April. However, the ministry cut back the MEH's proposal seeing how the gas market will be fully liberalized at a later date.
Hungary was aiming to fully open its natural gas market to competition from July 1, 2008 but this will only happen Jan. 1, 2009 due to the lengthy parliamentary debate of the proposed legislation.