With the increase in excise duty, Hungarian fuel prices will be among the highest in the region.Continue reading
A new wave of price hikes is sweeping through Hungarian petrol stations, with retailers raising fuel prices again on Friday, according to the latest data released by fuel price monitoring portal holtankoljak.hu. This is the third time this week that fuel prices will increase, Világgazdaság points out.
On the last working day of the week, the wholesale price of petrol and diesel will also rise. The former will be 3 forints higher gross, while the purchase price of diesel will be 4 forints higher gross. Taking into account the current average prices, the average prices for fuel from Friday will be as follows:
A liter of petrol will cost 24 forints more (1 EUR = 381 HUF) this Friday than last week, while a liter of diesel will cost 28 forints more.
It is important to note that most of this hike, 21 forints, is due to the mandatory excise duty increase that came into force on Monday. On the same day, it was revealed that from Wednesday, the wholesale price of diesel will rise by 3 forints gross, also reflected in the price at the pump, i.e. at the retail level.
The level of the increase itself may be a sensitive factor for consumers, but what really makes the week worse is the three consecutive increases. It is something that vehicle owners could not really get used to, with essentially continuous price cuts at petrol stations from the end of September last year until January, when the first round of 20 forint excise duty increases came in. However, even in the first week of the new year, diesel prices fell by another ten forints.
In order to find out whether Hungarian fuel can be really considered expensive, it is not enough to look at one-week trends: it is worth going further back in time. First of all, it is important to see that fuel prices are mostly influenced by external factors, global market developments, global conflicts, supply, and demand. Of course, there is no need to worry about dealer profits either.
A price of around HUF 600 per liter is not too low, but last September, petrol stations were still charging HUF 650 a liter.
From this perspective, petrol prices, increased by 41 forints in excise duty, are about 70 forints lower than three and a half months ago, and about the same for diesel.
This conclusion is even more evident if we start from the annual base. In January last year, the fuel market, having just got rid of the HUF 480 price cap, was hectic. This obviously had an impact on free market pricing and led to increased retail and wholesale margins: at that time, petrol was around 50 forints more per liter, and diesel was even more expensive, at around 90 forints more, approaching the HUF 700 level.
Via Világgazdaság, Featured image: Pixabay