Yangon: Myanmar’s military rulers announced Tuesday a 10-fold hike in electricity prices, on the back of sky-rocketing inflation sparked by last month’s huge wage increase for civil servants.

The change is effective May 1, affecting mainly urban dwellers who have access to what little electricity is available in this impoverished nation where power cuts frequently last six hours a day.

The Electricity Ministry announced the rate hike in a statement Tuesday, saying that electricity would now cost 25 kyats (about two cents) per unit, up from 2.5 kyats.

“Im afraid to see this month’s electricity bill. We have to reduce our use of electricity,” one 40-year-old housewife said, adding that their monthly bill was about 1,500 kyats (1.15 dollars), but would now be 15,000 kyats.

Wealthier households that use air conditioning normally would pay about 10 times that amount.

Myanmar’s military government awarded 10-fold pay increases to civil servants, and similarly large hikes to the military on April 1.

That has set off an inflationary spiral in a country where the economy is already crumbling under years economic mismanagement by the military.

Economists estimate that prices have jumped at least 20 percent for basic commodities in the last month.