Gasoline and diesel prices are no longer subject to government control anywhere in Mexico following the conclusion of a process to liberalize the domestic fuel market.

The Finance Secretariat (SHCP) announced Wednesday that fuel prices would be fully deregulated effective November 30 and it would cease publishing daily maximum prices.

Government-set prices came to an end in a staged process that was rolled out across the country over the last several months.

However, it added that it would continue to soften sudden price variations through a stimulus scheme to alleviate the burden of the IEPS excise tax.

In other words, it will continue to intervene — albeit in a limited way — in the market when prices rise abruptly due to fluctuations in international fuel prices and the exchange rate.

Intervention in the fuel market via the economic stimulus will cost the government around 70 billion pesos (US $3.75 billion) in 2017. A reduction in the stimulus next year is expected to lessen the impact on public coffers.

In the northern border region, the measure has gone some way towards making up the price gap with cities in the southern United States, where fuel is cheaper.