Price per gallon of regular gasoline: Costa Rica $3.50, Nicaragua $3.36, Honduras $3.24, El Salvador $2.82, Guatemala $2.82 and Panama $2.63.  My friend recently visited Belize where gas is $5.50 per gallon.  Same in most Caribbean Islands.

The increase in fuel prices for this fortnight is because of production factors, according to the latest report provided by the IEA, gasoline reserves showed a weekly reduction of 1.5 million barrels, also distillates such as diesel decreased by 1.4 million barrels per week; these inventory reductions affect the tendency of prices to rise, because there are fewer gasoline and diesel reserves to supply the existing demand in the hydrocarbon market, which generates this effect in the international prices of oil derivatives.

Another of the productive factors affecting international prices is the firm compliance with the agreement of the OPEC countries that decided, at the end of December 2018, to reduce production by 1.2 million barrels a day, to avoid overabundance of reserves in 2019. According to the latest reports provided by experts, the organization has reduced on average 1.1 million barrels per day with an approximate compliance of 92%, these events directly affect world prices, because it generates less supply.

*Prices taken from Acodeco.gob.pa