Price of petrol to be lowered in Hungary on Friday
The wholesale gross list price of 95-octane petrol will be trimmed by HUF3 per litre as of Friday, while the price of diesel will not be changed. Accordingly, we should expect the following average retail prices at the pumps:
- 95-octane petrol: HUF 559 t/litre
- Diesel: HUF 587 Ft/litre
According to Eszter Bujdos, managing director of holtankoljak.hu, the outlook for the fuel market is positive: in a recent interview she pointed out that
OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS WE HAVE SEEN A DOWNWARD TREND IN OIL PRICES.
This is driven primarily by record U.S. strategic stock levels, uncertainty over hydrocarbon demand in China and the fact that there is a presidential election in the U.S. this year, and the administration has an obvious interest in keeping fuel prices low.
Of course, there are also circumstances that could push the oil price up, such as OPEC's voluntary production cut decisions that could significantly tighten supply, and market participants could be watching the oil cartel's moves very closely.
A HUF 41.3 per litre excise tax hike effective 1 January 2024 is being introduced by Mol in two stages. The first one was a HUF 20 hike on the first day of the month, and the second will be a HUF 21 raise on 15 January. Other pump operators also increased prices by HUF 20 in the first days of the month.
Even after the already implemented and the upcoming excise tax hike, fuel prices are considerably lower than a year go. (The 15 January prices on the graphs below are estimates based on 12 January retail prices.)
In the current environment, Hungarian fuel prices are already the third highest in Central and Eastern Europe. The upcoming second stage of the excise tax hike will push prices to the top of the rankings, although the government's explicit goal was to keep domestic motor fuel prices under the neighbouring countries' level.
