Petrobras will raise gasoline prices at refineries to their highest level since May.

SÃO PAULO (Reuters) - Petrobras will raise gasoline prices at refineries by 0,59 percent starting Wednesday, to 2,0369 reais per liter, the highest level since May 23, the oil company said on its website on Tuesday (10).

The prices of fossil fuels have been rising at the state-owned refineries since June 22, coinciding with the increase in international oil benchmarks and the appreciation of the dollar against the real.

Both factors, the external market and the exchange rate, are part of the company's fuel pricing system, which has been in effect since last year and provides for almost daily adjustments.

In the case of diesel, the price has remained frozen at 2,0316 reais per liter since the beginning of June, with the company benefiting from an economic subsidy offered by the government to avoid larger fluctuations.

The surge in diesel prices, which reached a high of 2,3716 reais per liter in May, was at the heart of a historic truckers' strike that month, which severely affected various sectors of the country's economy.

The subsidy for diesel prices itself was created by the government in the wake of these protests.

Petrobras has been reiterating for months that it has no power to set fuel prices, which fluctuate according to market conditions. Furthermore, it emphasizes, including in commercials, that its share of the price accounts for approximately one-third of the final price at gas stations.