R$0.44 (about $0.08) per liter. That is what Brazil's federal government will keep paying gasoline producers and importers until September 9 to hold down pump prices. In practice, public money is covering part of what drivers would otherwise pay out of pocket.

The extension was signed by Finance Minister Dario Durigan in an order published in the government's official gazette, according to G1. Newspaper O Globo confirmed the report and added that the provisional measure underpinning the subsidy expires on that same September 9 date, forcing the government to decide whether to renew the benefit through another legal mechanism.

The basics: the "subvencao" is a direct subsidy. When international oil prices rise, Petrobras and other fuel distributors normally pass part of that increase on to gasoline sold at service stations. To keep that increase from hitting drivers in full, the Treasury pays producers and importers a set amount per liter, holding down the final price at the pump.

The subsidy has been in place since May 25 and has already cost public coffers roughly R$2.4 billion (about $430 million) in just over two months, according to O Globo. To put that in perspective, that sum is equivalent to more than 400,000 monthly minimum wages in Brazil. Days after the subsidy began in May, Petrobras raised the wholesale price of gasoline sold to distributors by R$0.48 per liter, but the actual increase felt by consumers was only R$0.04, precisely because of the subsidy, G1 reported.

The same order also extended, until September 9, a separate subsidy of R$1.12 per liter of diesel, used for the same purpose, O Globo reported. Officials cite volatility in oil prices, now around $85 a barrel amid the conflict in the Middle East, as the justification for both measures. That same instability led Brazil's National Energy Policy Council in July to raise the mandatory blend of anhydrous ethanol in gasoline to 32%, another move aimed at easing inflationary pressure on fuel, according to G1.