With petrol prices continuing to rise, we wanted to share some insight on how prices vary around the world and where they have risen the most in the last five years. Oil prices surged as economies around the world began to recover from the pandemic and demand increased. The Russian invasion of Ukraine then pushed oil prices even higher.
ECA collects petrol prices in over 490 locations around the world every six months in March and September. In the March 2022 survey, prices rose an average of 34% compared to a year earlier with prices only dropping in two locations, Nuuk in Greenland and Bamako in Mali.
The most expensive petrol in the world is in Hong Kong where you won’t get much change from USD 200 to fill up a tank. Meanwhile in Tripoli in Libya, the same USD 200 would fill a fleet of more than 100 cars. At least, it would, assuming enough petrol was available, given the shortages hitting the city in recent months.
The infographic also looks at the price changes in the last five years for selected locations. Despite all countries facing rising oil prices, which are now around twice what they were five years ago, the impact at the pump has varied enormously. In Sudan several factors, including the withdrawal of subsidies and a currency devaluation that has impacted import costs, have compounded to push prices up enormously. However, prices in Khartoum are still lower than in many cities in the world and at the time of the survey were about the same as those in San Francisco.
In Riyadh, prices have risen by more than 150% but are still among the cheapest in the world at only 62 cents a litre. Prices in Dhaka, Bangladesh have remained the same as in 2017 at a level fixed by the government. With soaring oil prices pushing up the cost to the government of maintaining this policy, it remains to be seen if the price will stay fixed for much longer.
Our next cost of living survey will be in September 2022, when we can probably expect petrol prices to have increased significantly again from the March data.
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