Average Price Of Fuel In Spain Continues Rising For The Twelfth Consecutive Week

DRIVEN by the unchecked rise in the price of a barrel of oil, petrol prices continue to rise in Spain, for the twelth consecutive week.

According to the latest data published this Thursday, September 28, by the EU Weekly Oil Bulletin, petrol increased in price by 0.45 per cent in the last seven days, to stand at an average of €1.759/litre.

This is the maximum value so far in 2023 and the highest since the end of November 2022, when the Government’s fuel subsisy was still in force.

Diesel has also chained a rise in price for 12 consecutive weeks, standing at an average of €1,685/litre in the last week. The fuel has not seen this price since the end of January. A litre of diesel has gone up by 17 per cent since the start of July.

Fuel prices are higher now than at the start of the Ukrainian conflict

With these new increases, the price of both fuels is consolidated widely above the levels at which it was before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

At that time, On February 24, 2022, diesel was €1,479/litre and petrol stood at €1,594/litre. However, both fuels have not reached – despite this upward trend in the last two months – the maximums they reached more than a year ago. In July 2022, petrol hit €2,141 and diesel was 2.1.

With these current prices, filling an average 55-litre tank with petrol would cost about €96.74, compared to €81.45 one year ago, according to 20minutos.es.

To fill a similar tank with diesel will cost around €92.67, about €3.46 more than the €89.21 it cost in the same period of 2022.

Portugal is also suffering a rise in fuel prices

A similar situation is occurring over the border in neighbouring Portugal, where prices have climbed even higher. In light of a nationwide outcry over the continual rise in fuel prices, the Government made the decision to implement a reduction in the tax burden that is applied to fuels by returning part of the VAT.

As a result, from Tuesday 26, the cost per litre of diesel fell by two cents and petrol by one cent.However, consumers and resellers claimed that this latest reduction was insufficient and they criticised the volatility of prices in the country over the last few months.

The National Association of Fuel Dealers (ANAREC) demanded that that the price of diesel and petrol should fall even further.

A proposal from the fuel retailers suggested that fuel prices could be lowered to match those practiced across the border in Spain. This move, according to ANAREC, would lead to increased consumption by motorists.