Over the past few years, petrol and diesel prices across the euro area have exploded. This week they averaged €1.72 for a litre of petrol and €1.66 for a litre of diesel. This means a gap of 33 cents a litre on petrol and 42 cents on diesel when compared to prices in Malta. The highest prices were €1.91 in the Netherlands for petrol and €1.78 in Finland for diesel.

Malta has the lowest price in the euro area for both petrol and diesel. In the last four years, on average, the price of a litre of petrol has increased by 25 cents in the euro area while there has been a 7 cent drop in Malta. When it comes to the price of diesel, the increase around the monetary union was 29 cents, against a 7 cent drop in Malta. But there were countries where there was a much higher increase. For example, in Germany the price of a litre of petrol over the last four years has increased by 39 cents. In the same country, diesel increased even more, by 41 cents.

Today Malta is the only euro area country where one can buy petrol and diesel at lower prices than they were four years ago. If one considers a person buying 20 litres a week of petrol, if they had paid the average price of the euro area instead of the Maltese one, they would have spent €1,015 more on petrol in the last four years. Someone buying 20 litres of diesel a week has saved €1,216 in the last four years. If prices in Malta had evolved the same as in Germany, the amount that the same person would have had to pay would have been almost €1,400 more over four years.

Price change in the last four years (cents per litre)