The drop in the price of oil on global stock markets will not have an immediate effect on the price of oil derivatives in Serbia and the price of petrol in Serbia should not decrease in the next 15 days, councillor Ljubinko Savic of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) stated on Tuesday.

The price of oil on the global market needs to continue dropping for a longer period of time in order to exert influence on the Serbian market, Savic told Tanjug.

He explained that companies closed contracts on the purchase of oil at the previous, higher prices, which is why they would not reduce the price of derivatives and thus cause losses to themselves.

Savic noted that over the past few months, ever since Serbia's market of oil derivatives became liberalised, the drop of oil prices in the world was not followed by a decrease in the prices of oil derivatives on the local market.

Serbian State Secretary for Infrastructure and Energy Dusan Mrakic told Tanjug that the Ministry hopes prices of oil products in Serbia would follow the drop of oil prices on global markets.

He recalled that the market of oil derivatives in Serbia was liberalised at the beginning of 2011 and that the state can no longer charge maximum prices for oil derivatives.

The current prices of oil derivatives in Serbia are the result of free market competition between a great number of oil companies in Serbia, Mrakic said.