The United Arab Emirates will lower domestic prices for gasoline and diesel in January, the ministry of energy said on Monday.

The price of a litre of octane 95 gasoline will drop 6 percent to Dh1.58 ($0.4302) at the start of January from Dh1.68 in December, the ministry said on its Twitter account.

The domestic diesel price will fall to Dh1.61 in January from Dh1.83 in December, the ministry said.

In July, the UAE said it was shifting from a system of fixed, subsidised fuel prices to adjusting prices monthly in response to global trends.

It did not reveal details of its new formula nor say whether subsidies would be removed entirely, but announced that fuel prices would be "based on the average global prices with the addition of operating costs".

Crude oil futures benchmark Brent was trading at $37.58 a barrel at 0739 GMT, down 31 cents from its last settlement. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were down 47 cents at $37.63 per barrel. - Reuters