Focus – New record for the average diesel price in the EU

PARIS, 1 October /ATSH-AFP/ – The price of diesel at fuel stations in the European Union has reached a new all-time record, with a weekly average of €2.24 per litre, up one cent compared with last week’s record, according to a summary of national data published on Thursday by the European Commission. Average price records were broken in 12 of the 27 member countries, including Belgium, Italy, Romania and Poland, according to the data that national authorities send to Brussels every week since 2005.

These data reflect the prices displayed by fuel stations, sometimes at the beginning of the week and sometimes at the end of the previous week, depending on the country. The price of a litre of diesel, the main fuel for road freight transport and agricultural machinery, exceeded €2.50 in Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland, while in Germany it reached €2.44. In Belgium, where the record was broken, a litre of diesel cost an average of €2.43 on Monday, compared with €2.39 a week earlier. In Italy, the price rose by seven cents, reaching €2.35. French fuel stations – not including overseas territories and Corsica – on Friday displayed a litre of diesel at an average price of €2.37, in a very slight fall over a week.

These data, taken from the European Commission’s oil bulletin, include taxes, which vary from one country to another and make up on average 40% of the price paid at the fuel station in the EU, but do not take into account targeted aid, such as that for drivers who travel long distances in France. Since the end of February, fuel prices have been pushed up by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world’s hydrocarbons usually passed, and afterwards by the blockade of Saudi exports in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels, as well as by Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.