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Due to the war in Israel, analysts predicted a clear rise in fuel prices. However, they are being proved wrong, writes Világgazdaság. As it turns out, the war in Israel has no effect on Hungarian fuel prices, revealed Holtankoljak.hu on Wednesday morning.
The prices at Hungarian petrol stations will remain unchanged from Friday, allowing filling up at the usual average prices in the second half of the week. This means that
the price of 95 petrol is HUF 603 (EUR 1.57) per liter, and diesel will remain at HUF 650 (EUR 1.69) per liter.
However, the forecast for this week is clearly determined by the war situation in Israel. This has had a major impact on the price of oil. After a fall in Brent oil price the previous week, the price has started to rise again. Last week, Brent closed at USD 84.38 per barrel, which has now risen to over USD 90. The more than seven percent increase is somewhat offset by the fact that the forint has strengthened significantly against the dollar in recent days, with the current exchange rate hovering around HUF 362, compared to the HUF 370 level last Friday.
Overall, Holtankoljak.hu expected domestic fuel prices to rise as a result of the rise in oil prices. However, this was thoroughly contradicted by Hungarian petrol stations. In fact, last week, oil market experts predicted that the price drop of the past few weeks would now stop and that there would be price increases. So the fact that on Monday and Wednesday, prices will remain stagnant, i.e. that there will be no price increases at all, came as a surprise to all analysts and experts.
Moreover, the current price level is certain to last until Wednesday next week.
New information on fuel price developments will not be available until next Monday when the announced price increases will take effect from mid-week. In the meantime, it is safe to say that fuel prices in Hungary have not risen since the end of September, and apart from this week’s stagnation, there has been a massive fall: HUF 57 (EUR 0.14) gross for petrol and HUF 31 (EUR 0.8) gross for diesel.
What is happening with Hungarian fuel prices is interesting because it is yet another refutation of the idea that traders are only following international trends in their pricing, Gábor Egri, president of the Independent Petrol Consumers’ Association, recently told Világgazdaság. As it turns out, it is not the first time that Hungarian pricing fails to keep pace with global changes. Therefore, it is again important to point out that a key factor in determining consumer prices is the wholesale and retail margin, and experts estimated it could have reached HUF 130-140 (EUR 0.33-0.36) per liter by the end of September. This may have contributed to the fact that domestic fuel prices were considered expensive in the region.
It was at this point that the government stepped in and brought fuel market representatives to the table. It made it clear to them that if they were unable to control prices, it was prepared to intervene and even bring back the price cap. The companies responded cooperatively and Hungarian fuel prices have not risen since. Nor, as the above shows, could the international situation alone justify this.
Via Világgazdaság, Featured image: Pixabay
