Topic: Countries with the most expensive fuel | Greece's case study (Read 629 times)

In my country - the middle class person have been in serious trouble due to oil and gas prices. The hike in the prices have been so much trouble for an average person. How would a poor person survive? The other needful items has gone to extreme high rate. What has this fuel crisis done to the world. Oh Dear lord.

What's also not helping is the exchange rate of €EUR/$USD, which is currently at $1.05/€ and is putting a huge burden on gas prices. I haven't seen it like that before, in the past, it used to be approximately $1.20/€. On top of that, our government is refusing to lower fuel taxation, despite Eurozone suggestion. Instead, another fuel pass will be distributed (prepaid card only for fuel purchases), providing each person approximately 50-60 € balance to be used for fuel, which is honestly a drop in the ocean.

When the price of oil rises indirectly it also makes other prices also rise,
In this case the government should be able to act seriously to overcome it,
I hope this oil price can return to normal considering that currently the prices of other commodities are also rising

I don’t really know if this same country you are talking about is my country also, because the things you mentioned here are all similar to the calamities faced in my country. The rich takes from the poor to remain even richer, talking about the oil production aspect, my country also produces the same oil, in very good quantities but how we are not able to use this oil to our own benefit still baffles me because I am aware of the numerous things oil can do, I’m aware of the income sources oil can create, so it's actually disheartening that our natural resources are being managed by foreigners, the more reason there’s an imbalance in the economy; things always go the rich side.

In my country oil prices continue to rise, subsidies are getting reduced and poor people find it difficult to buy good quality oil, I think this is because the country does not have a clear target for the future of the oil industry, my country can still produce oil but it is managed by private companies and foreign companies, state oil companies only import and this keeps prices going up.

Brent crude is inching towards the $125 level. And here in India, there is some very bad news for the citizens. State oil companies tried to come up with a deal with Rosneft for the import of discounted Russian crude, but Rosneft told them that they don't have any spare capacity. The oil needs to be lifted from Russia on a spot basis, which is going to be more expensive. Unless the EU embargo on Russian tanker crude is fully implemented, the Indian oil companies won't be able to sign any long-term agreement with Rosneft or Lukoil.

The sad thing there's no direct way to battle inflation and due to the increasing costs in fueling and electricity, daily products are becoming more and more expensive. Inflation in Greece surpassed 10.7% in May, which translates in an increase of over 10% in the majority of goods being sold.

Salaries were supposedly increased in first of May, but it's not an ideal way to battle inflation, since the higher cost of employees is often absorbed by consumers.

The sad thing is, that inflation will continue to rise and we have to deal with it. Even when the war stops or the pandemic ends, I believe that there's no way for us or even the government to solve the increasing inflation rate of each country. Yes, the oil price hikes each weak and even rich people are suffering. I guess the best thing that we can do is just to grind and hustle harder so we can survive this inflation crisis.

That's certain. The excessive prices are here to stay, even if everything suddenly switches back to normal, the inflated prices will remain for a long time and become the new standard. In the best case scenario, we'll see a slight drop and that's about it. The average price for 95 unleaded is over €2.35 and is expected to rise even further from Monday, due to Brent oil surpassing $125/barrel.

The most unbearable fact is, that is Russian-Ukrainian war stops, prices wont start to go back. Living with such inflation and high prices will be new normal, until another world collapse or disaster happens. Sort of a slow self destruction mechanism started by humankind.

In my country, every 2-3 days fuel prices updates is ATH. Every time I am passing by fuel station and see fuel prices, in my mind I say "not again..." and start to think about what places I have planned to visit I could skip...

Here the situation is worrying. Minimum wage is 242$ and average gasoline liter price is around 1,44$. Diesel fuel is almost the same price of gasoline and there are risks of shortage soon. In case there isn't enough supply for the internal market, the government will try a barter system with another countries, exchanging food for fuel directly. At least that is what the president says, although it's not possible to take his words in consideration, because he isn't a man of his word.

That is the price to be paid for not adopting and developing sustainable sources of energy in abundance. Now the world is heavily dependant on Russia and its friends for one of the most basic goods indispensable in the economy of a country.

To make things worse, most people here live with a minimum wage, while 17,5 million families are living supported by government's welfare program, which is also used as political bargain coin to bribe the miserable for votes in electoral years.

That's correct, if you check my other threads regarding fuel prices or inflation, they date back to September or October, till February before the war started. The condition was already awful in September, with fuel prices already on the rise, electricity costs had skyrocketed and inflation was already making its appearance on a daily basis.

Currently, inflation is over 10.7% and is expected to rise even further, the average cost for a liter of 95 unleaded is over €2.35 while everything has become way more expensive, up to the point of it being unbearable.

The whole world is in trouble - we are so much affected by the inflation. Also the poor sect of our country is very upset and they are in extreme agony how to take care of themselves and the the family.
I don't see any good thing happening in coming days.

Greece is on a big inflation even before the war started between Russia and Ukraine though maybe this situation make it more worst. In my country, we expect to have a higher inflation in the coming months and maybe, this could be the start of the price hike. This is one of the problem that world faces today, many countries are already suffering from a big inflation, oil is one thing and I can expect more commodities to rise in price as well.

Russia is not in trouble even after the whole world turned against them.
They are doing what they want - but the world is in limbo what to do if Russia is not going to give them oil and gas. I think they forget that Russia can survive the sanctions but the world would surly be going to ask for oil.

Nations could have prevented this, there is absolutely no reason for this to happen right now. Well it is simple, instead of spending so much on oil, or military, or religion, or anything else that they are spending and mainly being so corrupted, they could have spent billions (not just Greece, all nations) could build an electric vehicle, like tesla but for public transportation (maybe some exist) as a bus, and then put solar panels which is an invention that already exists, and put it everywhere. So that would mean that it would cost literally nothing for a nation to provide bus rides to its citizens, maybe a tiny amount for like replacements and repair and all that.

It's a vicious cycle, fueling costs increase transportation costs which are passed into products and causes the inflation we're talking about. Fueling prices keep soaring here, averaging 2.45€/liter for 95 unleaded petrol while groceries cost at least 10-15% on average.

In the meantime, despite the imposed sanctions, Russia claimed more than $20b in revenue from oil sales.

These fuel price increases are really making the inflation much quicker and higher and it's the whole world that suffers expect for the few companies that have their main source through oil.

Damn, the ATH on the oil prices really is making our lives harder and it's a domino effect when fuel price increases. All commodities and goods are also increasing. When this war will end and things will go back easier pre-pandemic, we're just about to see the neutralization of the covid-19 due to vaccines but there's another challenge due to the war and oil price increases.

Even at this point, imports from Russia represents only 20% of the total imports for India. I would not say that it is an insignificant number, but the impact on trade deficit and local inflation is limited. And one more thing. Most of the Russian crude is being imported by private refiners such as Reliance India and Nayara Energy. And they are exporting the refined products (petrol, diesel.etc) to Europe. These private refineries are profiting out of this business and not passing on the profits to the common people of India.

Bad, this year the world economy is getting worse due to the increase in fuel, my country in 2021 the price of gasoline type fuel is $0.6/diluted to enter in 2022 to $ 1/diluted, the economy in all sectors deteriorated especially the market 80% of all goods rose due to the increase in fuel prices.

It seems that the skyrocketing fuel has not only happened in Greece, almost all countries have experienced it, trading activities have stalled, Complaints from small businesses screamed, almost entirely suffering from rising fuel costs.

Greece was warned by Turkey not to drill for fuel in the Mediterranean, but Greece did not heed the ban, If Greece and Turkey fight and fight over oil in the Mediterranean, I believe this will have a bad impact on both countries, of course the people will suffer more than what is happening today.

India is still doing trades with Russia for their oil. I haven't kept up with Russian oil exports but it caused some concern for the West that India was still electing to do business with Russia despite sanction efforts. A source I found suggests India is not looking to stop their cheap oil binge: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/31/energy/india-snapping-up-russian-oil-intl-hnk/index.html

All the fuel costs in Europe skyrocketing is really by choice. If they want to do business with Russia and lower their fuel costs, they can. India's doing well for themselves and I don't find the war in Ukraine a compelling reason to send fuel costs soaring. Good for them.

Depends how you look at it. If electric cars don't become less expensive than they're, with at least the same mileage as you would get filling up a regular car, then electric cars could make it more difficult for the poor. Since, cars requiring fuel will become less used, and therefore fuel becomes a sort of niche product with much less demand, which would in turn increase the cost per litre.

This is especially true when you throw the UK in the mix which is banning the sale of any new car that isn't electric in 2030. If you haven't converted by then, and can't afford to convert you'll likely be paying massive amounts per litre of fuel.

At the moment, electric cars are too expensive. You're looking at 30-40k. Anything less only has about a 100 mile range which is absolutely shocking compared to the fuel alternatives. Fuel costs are currently £1.83 per litre, and that's likely to shoot up to above £2 a litre in a few months. Then when 2030 comes on you kind of get a compounded increase, due to the pandemic, war, and inflation. Then, obviously you're hit by the law being brought in banning new car sales that aren't electric.

In my country (India), we have a strange situation. The gasoline and diesel prices have increased only by around 5% during the last 6 months. The reason is that the government reduced taxes on fuel, and then asked the public-owned refiners to subsidize the fuel. PSUs such as Indian Oil Corporation are incurring huge losses for every liter of fuel they sell on market. Now I don't know for how long they will be able to continue with this system. Because at some point, the subsidies need to stop. Else these companies are going to become bankrupt.

Yes the price of the ticket in my country has also skyrocketed. Some people can't help but complain without even knowing the real reason why it did happen but me I don't complain anymore because I know that it is only caused by the rise of the fuel's price. Despite of the increase, the operator of the vehicles do also earns less than what they are earning before the fuel hike came.

If there are ones that are totally affected it was them the drivers or the operators because they mostly have big families and have a much poorer lives than to most of the commuters that mostly have a better-paying jobs and have a small number of family to feed.

I think I would not call getting oil from a country that wages a genocidal war (so, basically, sponsoring the war by paying for Russial oil) 'fortunate. Does not it make you uncomfortable, knowing the source and what's going on?
I never had to buy oil in my life, so I don't know our prices and don't intend to get involved. As for gas, I hope my country and others will switch more to electricity (we have tons of gas stoves and some gas heating), and source it from something more eco-friendly and not related to dictatorships.

politics is a drama that is forever irritating...

(I didn't mention the issue of greece oil prices) The problem of oil prices is a serious thing that happens in many countries, the high price of oil certainly affects the cost of goods (food and beverages). in my country, the price of oil in different regions (cities and provinces) is different, the politics that causes it all, the government is just sweet-talking, their campaign promises are fake.

Solar panels are a great solution for countries with excessive sunlight, such as Greece or Italy, but no one seems to be taking advantage  of such an opportunity. As you've already mentioned, EVs are not solving anything, since the percentage of renewable energy sources is minimal, according to OurWorldinData, it was just 11% in 2019, a number which may have slightly increased.

On top of that, they are currently exceedingly expensive for the average household, but that's supposed to change in the future. Fuel continues rising, groceries as well while getting by is a lot more difficult now. On top of that, as you've also mentioned, that huge chunk of oil supply from Russia hasn't been replaced and is causing an outrage in pretty much everything.

To add onto the pricing of oil... there are HUGE oil ships parked in the sea the size of small countries... nationalization of assets would be a good call for such assets as they are only going to profit the elites anyway.

The reliance on oil has always been the easy solution but it is not the only solution. The problem is the politicians are not paid to solve problems, they are paid to politik problems. Europe has ample land, order solar panels from china and put em up like no tomorrow and watch what happens. China's factories can churn out panels pretty fast. The poorer regions could use this as a source of income for the richer regions. Solar efficiency is increasing despite the funding for solar being well below the R&D budgets for fossil fuels. There are prototypes of over 50% efficiency, the current solar cells in market are only around 15% efficient right now.

There is still sufficient time to shift from fossil fuels before reserves dry up... oh and theres a shortcut too if the earth doesent matter, just buy from the other oil producing countries, countries like the UAE have tons theyre sitting on.

All of this wont happen though... heres whats going to happen instead... largely nothing will be done to address the supply issue. Some supplies may be arranged from alternate suppliers but they will be inadequate. Fuel prices will continue rising. Daily items prices will sky rocket. In some countries the prices of groceries tripled during early days of covid and continue to rise till today.
"You will own nothing and be happy" know where that comes from?
The money printer that was turned on during COVID will continue the after effects of 'inflation'. If this does not show why FIAT is a failure i do not know what will.. This is why BTC exists and is a hedge against inflation.

EVs will not solve the problem because the problem is where does the electricity come from? Many times a major chunk of it comes from fuel...

I am optimistic that the problem of energy is addressable on a global scale without fossil fuels but skeptical that any major country has the guts to move away from fossil fuels dependence (bhutan is a good pilot case study on green energy as a major source of energy)

I'm in a small city which doesn't have urban public transport so I can't really tell. However, I've heard that suburban tickets have seen a small increase, but it's not an alarming one. Discussions were being made a few weeks ago to reduce the VAT percentage from 24% to 13% in bus, train tickets etc, but it hasn't been implemented yet.

Germany has significantly reduced the cost of public transport, via their monthly transportation card which is available for only 9 euros and includes suburban trains and buses.

So far we have talked much about expensive fuel in connection with personal transport. What about public transport in your region? Has ticked prices went up or transport companies plan to do it? So far in my country I see people, who use public transport with sort of a dominance on their faces. They have paid same ticket price when the diesel (I have diesel car, so I remember diesel prices) cost less than 1 EUR, 1 EUR, 1,50+ EUR, 2+ EUR. Public transport users so far feel quite comfortable with fuel price increase, or so far they bother about it. In my country I think the amount of public transport users is greater than those who use their own transport. But, if ticket prices doubles, I expect dissatisfied statements.

Well, Brent oil has spiked to $125/barrel, which will send prices over 10 cents per liter, surpassing €2.45/liter of unleaded 95 petrol. As you've said yourself, the situation is bound to get worse, and I'm not sure how our citizens will make ends meet, including myself. Electricity will become a huge issue in the upcoming weeks, they are already discussing to ban cars on Sundays, limit A/C usage and a few other measures that I cannot recall at the moment.

Instead of the current problems with gasoline, problems with electricity will begin, that's all.

There will be no solution to this problem. The fuel crisis is a curse we all have received.
The crisis is server in Sri Lanka and Pakistan and they are also facing political turmoil in there. Just because they refrained from not participating in the wars of other.

Even small countries are suffering from fuel price hikes. I wonder why even our country's fuel price is rising each week when our fuel supply isn't from countries that are experiencing war. In this case, even the inflation rate is rising continuously and everyone is tragically suffering. I hope they could do a solution to this problem which we have been facing for years and is getting worse each year.

I wish the whole world turns to these environment friendly vehicles - and there is no need for fuel - this OIL war has done so much damage to the world. The monopoly is not going to end and there will be no peace on the earth if the same situation continues.

Tesla is already receiving orders for their Semi, by depositing a $20.000 down payment. If I'm not mistaken, deliveries are claimed to start from 2024, according to Elon Musk. A few other companies are also said to develop, or have developed smaller trucks already, such as BYD or Daimler. It would be interesting to see what range they'll achieve, because they're way too heavy, and how fast they'll charge

Again we only talk about the electric cars but this isn't end with the cars alone, I am talking about moving the goods from ship to truck, even we are in the development of electric trucks but what about moving the billion tonnes of cargo across all over the world.

I love the concept of electric cars, however, I believe that they're a still at a relatively early stage of development, which makes it hard to be widely adopted. If I were to buy one with a decent battery autonomy, I'd have to spend more than $40.000-$50.000. We can hardly afford to pay the extravagant fuel prices, let alone buy an expensive brand-new car. In the future perhaps, when the prices drop to more feasible levels, I'm pretty sure they'll be a number one option for most consumers.

My country still provides subsidies for diesel and oil so it is still cheap compared to many countries, the price of 1 gallon of oil is around $5, oil is an important factor that can make the economy better or trigger inflation so the government is very serious about maintaining oil stocks.

Its funny to see some of the members are suggesting EVs to deal with the increase in fuel price but running car isn't the only thing we get affected whenever the price of fuel increase. Increase of fuel price affect every consumer goods which affects the living cost even contribute to the further increase of inflation when the market is already down due to economic crash all over the world. Finding the alternative source is long term and need bigger change in the current infrastructure so government has to stop spending the taxes for their defence and start spending it in the more useful ways. How many of you agree with it?

It's always interesting to see such observations but it is really hard to make comparisons between countries for so many factors like the ones you describe. I think generally in Europe and similar countries in "The West" we have incredibly privileged and relatively stable lifestyles, even when you factor in recent issues with inflation - the effects are much worse elsewhere. You make some reference to Scandinavian countries and their politicians were surprising sensible and honest with using funds gathered from oil extraction, putting it into sovereign wealth funds which give their citizens a much greater return over the long term than allowing a few companies to profit huge amounts that only benefit shareholders.

A few weeks ago, the government provided most citizens with a prepaid card, with a balance ranging from 40€ to 55€, depending your geographic location. To be honest, such measure is a drop to the ocean, doesn't even provide us with a temporary solution. A new fuel pass is now being discussed to he distributed in June or July, which also won't solve a thing.

Rumors have it that due to upcoming elections that may occur within the end of the year or during the start of 2023, the excise tax may be reduced, as a promotional measure for the elections.

I'd it too if I had the option to be honest, like wiss19 suggested, it's a common practice in medical procedures too. I've heard quite a few instances of people coming from the USA, to fix their teeth here, because the same procedure could cost 10-20 times less. Dental bridges, for instance, cost a fortune in the US, but they're relatively cheap here, especially if you take into account the US's wages.

The same thing also occurs in other Balkan countries, such as Serbia or Bulgaria, where teeth procedures are extremely cheap compared to the rest of Europe.

That's correct. But I was not criticizing, although I somewhat think that this is how you see my post. No, I was explaining that Greece's overly high prices for fuel are not new and they're well known.

There are tons of people who do this all over the world though, it is not just based on Greece or any other nation. I have seen it around my nation, seen it in other nations as well, even people in USA do it with Mexico. In fact, this is done with many sectors, like how Americans have literally "healthcare tourism" to Canada for example, because even with insurance, the charges are capped hence why it's cheaper. Many people who live in places like detroit for example end up going to Canada for dentist appointments.

All of this matters a a lot, not common and great but it is definitely done by many people. So going to another nation for something cheaper there is a common thing.

I would say that regular petrol price in my country is close to 2 EUR price. Every day price is balancing between several cents. I think month ago, we had a situation when diesel fuel cost more than petrol, but right now the situation has returned to pre-war, when diesel cost 5-8 cents less than regular petrol. As usually, this excise tax is half of a petrol price. Decreasing it for a while would greatly help those who travel a lot.

Personally, I have decreased car usage. The amount spend on fuel for traveling home-work-home weekly equals the cost of a monthly public transport ticket. I have replaced short rides and car rides to work with electric scooter. I've have bought it used, and costs paid off long time ago.

You're right, I was somehow convinced that it was a chart from 2021, so I wrote that it was something 1 year old. On the page that is the source of the chart, I found data from March 2021, where you can see how the shares in fuel prices and tariffs, and VAT increased. At the moment, I do not see how the situation can be improved, unless the states give up even more money in favor of ordinary people when it comes to tariffs and VAT.

For those who travel every day and use their own car, the situation is not pleasant at all - and the only thing they can suggest is to try to organize themselves in such a way that more people traveling in the same direction drive with one vehicle and share the costs. It's not very practical, but if someone spends $400 a month on fuel, it can be reduced to $100 if we take into account that there are 4 people in the car.

https://www.fuelseurope.eu/data-room/breakdown-of-automotive-gasoline-prices-across-eu-27-march-2021/

That's correct, in Greece, we have an excise tax of 700 euros per 1000 liters, which equivalents with 0.70 cents in each liter. Other countries such as Cyprus, have at least lowered the excise tax temporarily, till the situation settles.
The graph is from 2020's first quarantine, and as you can see, we still had one of the most expensive fuels in Europe, but still, seeing €1.30-€1.40 at the pump was a delight to say the least.

Common measures and policies do not always have the same effect on every EU member state, and this is quite logical because each country has its own specifics. While the ECB is still not doing anything concrete to stop inflation, non-eurozone members have some financial instruments to do something to protect their residents. Unfortunately, the EU's weaknesses are best seen now, but will only be felt in the near future when everyone can feel it on their skin.

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It is true that the price of fuel has two very important components that are different in all member states, and it is about the tariffs and VAT. Data from 1 year ago show that these tariffs are highest in the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Finland, and France, and lowest in Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania (non-eurozone members).


Source

Dont forget about excise tax. It differs from country to country. The price spread of pure oil is not that huge if we compare prices. Excise tax is what makes fuel price so high. There are European countries where fuel suppliers pay 500 EUR excise tax for every 1000 liters. Government could have decreased excise tax, but they prefer to collect more taxes, and complain about deficit in budget. So if you want to study fuel prices, start with excise tax, only then you would find most expensive fuel. Because it might be, that fuel itself cost less compared to other country, while fuel price on petrol station is higher.

Politicians? We voted for them and this is how they repay us now that's the beauty of it. If we speak on the terms of technical background then crude oil is way way cheaper and based on that prices fuel can be made available in cheap forms. However, prices are only soaring because it's "made short" in those countries but thr supply is still full, barrels are overflooded in Russia and Arab countries. This is not something low supply high demand situation. Frankly it's war strategy that's all.

The problem Europe has is that it does not produce oil, or almost no oil, we could say, especially compared to other parts of the world. And that, like it or not, fossil fuels are the cheapest form of energy. Add to this the shift to a "greener" energy model based mainly on cheap gas (much of which comes from Russia) to support so-called clean energies, and we see the perfect recipe for the current disaster, which has been triggered by the war, but could have happened for other reasons as well.

The U.S. can make oil cheaper by producing more of it. Greece and the European countries cannot. The other way to lower gasoline prices would be via reduced demand, as happened when the world was half paralyzed by Covid, which if it happens again would be a bad sign.

The gas issue will also impact the European way of life. Less and more expensive gas. I hope that at some point this will turn around, but the outlook looks bleak.

I have to say it's all about politicians and how people elect the right people. Places near that east Europe block, do not have politicians that are decent, and using that indecent methods to keep staying in power. Greece may be seen as a place that has decent people, but their ruling parties has always been terrible and never managed the nation properly. Whereas people in Norway, Finland, Sweden and all of that has been shown as an example of how great a nation could be ruled.

The biggest power any citizen has is their vote, and unfortunately many nations have citizens voting for the "most powerful person" by their logic, not the one that will rule the nation best.

Excuse me for not replying, I was unavailable the past two days, despite logging in.

That's correct, Greece went through a terrible phase in 2010, with awful austerity measures. I can't claim that we were "saved" since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) admitted that they hadn't assessed the situation correctly, making a few mistakes in the measures that were taken. Anyway, I believe not being in the Eurozone as a benefit anymore, since most countries I've seen that still have their own currency are in a way better standing than we are. Inflation here is soaring while wages are quite terrible for the majority of the population.

Greece and Italy share quite a few similarities indeed. It's true, people living near the Macedonian border are opting to buy petrol from there, I would too, provided that I had the option, it's way cheaper there. Unfortunately, those living in islands, like myself, are met with extravagant fuel prices, in some islands it has even surpassed €2.5/liter.

Fuel prices have certainly skyrocketed everywhere, however, due to the unfair taxation here, which always took place, and the price increases in every aspect of our daily lives, have become unbearable. We always had expensive fuel, but we're now on the top of the list with countries that have double or triple wages compared to ours.

I commute to work and university every day, meaning that I do over 30-40 kilometers a day, it might seem a little for USA's standards, but it's not only the fuel that has skyrocketed. Add the electricity, fuel, groceries and your salary isn't enough anymore.

Yes we all remember the big financial crash of 2007/2008 and the resulting hardship felt
more so in P, I, G and Spain, the ongoing inflation and effects from war related sanctions
could well be felt the hardest in those 4 countries again.

I live in the E.U and in my country we experienced Diesel touching €2 per litre and everything
else is rising and costs are being pushed down to the consumer.


Yea I think there are still a lot of moves which have yet to play out, oil and gas supply
from Russia is massive and major disruption will play havoc with everyones lives,
of course it will hit the consumer the hardest.

You get what you pay for! They imposed the sanctions all over Russia and now they are fighting back with brain game here. This is but obvious, this is war and the most essential thing in the war is food and fuel. You lower or cut down the supply of single commodity and the whole supply chain goes down. Putting it easily if you stop the fuel you get hampered with traveling, supply chain of food chain slows down and gets costly too. So all in all things start messing up.

The rise of fuel is soaring in many Asian countries too due to their tax system too.

Politics is a dirty business and there is no doubt about it, but in this particular case, we can see that some are still dirtier than others. The Russians are playing their strongest cards and already 5 or 6 years ago they knew the exact moves of their opponents - and the proof of that is that the sanctions have not practically touched them. They say the EU alone spends about 1 EUR billion a day on oil and gas, not to mention how much more money comes from the rest of the world.

I hope that everyone will learn something from this, although in the short term Russia can create big problems when it comes to oil and gas supplies to the EU. Summer hasn't even started yet, but winter is not so far away.

It is expensive to be alive or live nowadays  This about pros being a zombie. You dont need food (hello upcoming wheat problem), you can walk as much as you want (you dont need to bother about "expensive fuel"), you dont need medicine, fancy clothes and etc.

That doesn't matter at all.
Even if people may not travel such long distances so often, they still do travel. Even more, all goods are sent to supermarkets by trucks, hence the fuel prices are seen pretty fast in everything one is buying.


And, sadly, since a big percent of that fuel comes from Russia, these elevated prices help Russia's war effort. Isn't politics a bitch?

I remember back in 2008 during the financial crisis they kept talking about PIGS. It meant Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. They had a horrible recession with double digit unemployment. They had it for years even after the US economy recovered.

The high gases prices probably is nothing new. Compared to America most people there drive less and have cars with smaller engines. In America we got V8 large trucks and many commute 1-2 hours each day for work. In Greece they don’t travel as much.

Fuel prices going up is matter of general not matter of war because i understand that fuel can be scarce because of the manageability of economy because some of the countries have what to use to manufacture their own fuel for them to sell for affordable rate you both big man and poor person will also buy but some countries prefer selling their crude oil out and refinery from refineries and returning it with bigger price So lack of economy management is the cause of scarcity of fuel for each country

I personally think this is a general thing, things are really changing fast and sometimes, I wonder how the common man is going to survive if the cost of living continues to increase like it is currently doing.
Everything in my country has more than tripled in price when comparing them to the prices they were two years back, I remember I used to buy several stuffs online from a Chinese online store and have the item(s) shipped to me in my country, and I also remember I sometimes sell those stuffs in my country at a much higher price, this was one of the businesses I do back then, but currently, this business is no longer profitable because the cost of a dollar to my countries currency has more than tripled, and collecting the items from the post office used to be free of charge, but now, they weigh the item and charge you based on the kilogram.
Truly, things are changing for the worst for many countries but in all, I still hope and look forward to better days ahead.

Maybe not aim to have a car fueled by gasoline/diesel these days. But try checking out electric vehicles like electric bikes or tricycles.
And if you are just doing short distances, why not just walk, use bike or use the public transportation?
If you have the option not to use a car, then don't. Aside from saving money, you are also lessening your carbon footprint.
Everywhere seems to increase the fuel prices, not only in Europe area. So be smart these days, look for alternative and better options.

Lucky you - my country Prime Minister visited Russia for oil and wheat and the same day Russia attacked Ukraine. And all the blame is on our PM, we are fighting to get our PM back - so bad situation in my country, oil is life.

fortunately my country did not interfere so much in the war ukraine and russia,,,, so russia still sends its oil supply to our country and thanks for that the price of oil in our country is still quite cheap compared to neighboring countries

Greece and Italy too are "in my book" somewhere at the "far end of the pipe", i.e. I think that logistics may be playing an important role in the price, no matter it's a real pipe or it's about transportation on the road.
For those living near the northern part - close to Macedonian border - refueling abroad is a real deal.
Many tourists also do the same - refuel in Macedonia, just before entering Greece.
All this is known and it's not new at all. Of course, in the same way the fuel prices skyrocketed everywhere, they did - most probably proportionally - also in Greece.

I'll tell about Romania. The incomes are also far from great. Romania also extracts some fuel from own soil. And still the price now is over 1.63 EUR and keeps rising (iirc it was under 1 EUR last summer)
Now the northern countries: from what I know at least one of them has huge offshore resources. This means that those countries pretty much near the "start of the pipe". It's, unfortunately, not so much related to how much do people earn, although that fuel price ends up soon in the shelf prices for everything.

And something more: it's interesting to watch how much is the fuel price taxed. In some countries (including Romania) the tax is overly high. It may be the same situation in Greece too. And then it's the government that has to do something, even if it's temporary.


LE: One chart I find pretty good is: https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/Europe/ (just make sure you set price to EUR)

Apart from the list being of the countries with the most expensive fuels I do think that it can also be the list of countries who have to adopt alternative options asap. Tesla is not affordable for everyone ofcourse but I do think they can also bring something good in the market which might not only be of help to families who are struggling but expand their options as well. There are other cars available in the market but not that easy to sort the best our out there. Other than that there are countries like Russia who are exporting the fuel to Europe or *was* exporting, therefore I do think that soon enough many EU countries would be joining the list as well. France, Germany, Italy , Ireland, Sweden all are having the fuel prices which are more than 2$ and due to blockage of the supplies by the Russians and them having less alternative options it might not be an ideal time to start.

I may be wrong, but I always put Greece in the context of what happened in the not-so-distant past when Greece was saved in what is called the biggest financial rescue of a bankrupt country in history. Given all the measures and the huge debt that will not be able to be repaid until 2060 at the earliest, Greece is in great disfavor with those who bought its debt.

All this that is happening all over the world in Greece can only be more pronounced because the country does not have a free hand to deal with the crisis but must listen to what the bureaucrats from Brussels will do. The fact that the ECB only has a meeting in July where it could raise interest rates only deepens the crisis and raises inflation.

My country is in the EU, but fortunately, it is still not within the eurozone, which gives the central bank room for maneuvering to make some decisions together with the government. Fuel prices have been frozen several times already, which means that the price of 95 is about 0.40 EUR lower than in Greece. In addition, despite the sanctions, we are one of the countries that increased the most Russian oil imports after the Russian aggression on Ukraine. I'm not happy about that, especially since I know that part of the oil goes to another country, but that's another story.

Inflation is inevitable, and those who can keep it at around 10% will be considered lucky - others will have to tighten their belts even more. When it comes to the EU, I have no doubt that the countries in the west will fare much better than those in the east, but we should not be surprised, given that in the end everyone has to take care of themselves.

Generally apart from Greece, I think the cost of fuel on a litre is increasing by the day which is further deeping inflation and the cost of living and maintenance of the home and paying of utility bill is proportionally growing. This is keeping hardship unabated. For countries that the government decide to pay a little higher wages, they may not feel the hard times badly like Denmark or Finland as reference point but the countries with lesser paid salaries, the poor are getting poorer. Overall I also think this inflation is the outcome of wars from golf war in 1990 over thirty years ago.

Due to the ongoing war, inflation along with fuel prices have skyrocketed among the globe, with households not being able to keep up with the increased living costs. However, the impact of the increased living costs differ from country to country.

Let's take Greece's case for instance, which is the country of my residency. According to CNN Greece and MurciaToday, it has the third more expensive fuel in Europe, averaging 2.17€/liter of 95 unleaded, right after Finland and Denmark at 2.218€/liter and 2.208€/liter respectively. On top of that, the average mentioned price isn't that accurate anymore, due to the article being two days old already and the prices are increasing on a daily basis. The average is close to 2.20-2.22€/liter, but that could also be valid for the other two mentioned countries.

However, Denmark and Finland have one of the highest salaries and considerably best living conditions in Europe. Denmark on the one hand, doesn't feature an official minimum wage, but statistics show that the average income per individual is $2580 (~2450 euros). Finland on the other hand, also doesn't have an official minimum wage imposed, however the minimum salary someone can expect starts from €1.500 to €2.500. Greece's minimum wage however, doesn't exceed €713 before taxes. It's pretty obvious that you can easily see the difference.

The Greek citizens are suffering from the increased living costs, since everything has skyrocketed in price, from daily expenses such as gas and going to the supermarket, to electricity and utility bills. Personally, in my area petrol costs €2.35/liter, while I had to pay €300 for my electricity bill (4 months period), while increases in daily groceries have surpassed 20% in some products, such as meat and vegetables.

Sources: https://m.murciatoday.com/diesel_prices_in_spain_exceed_eu_average_for_first_time_1776291-a.html

https://www.cnn.gr/oikonomia/story/313066/spaei-ta-konter-i-timi-tis-venzinis-aplisiasta-ta-pratiria-sta-nisia/amp