Economy 24 January 2025, 11:45am

Fuel prices to be trimmed in Hungary

Portfolio

Hungarian energy group Mol is to lower wholesale gross list prices of motor fuels on Saturday, fuel price tracking site holtankoljak.hu reported on Friday.

The wholesale gross list price of petrol and diesel will be lowered by huf 2 per litre each.

It is difficult to say exactly how much of a reduction we can expect, as on Friday morning Mol cut retail prices by HUF 1 gross for petrol and HUF 5 gross for diesel, which petrol stations are expected to adjust to, the portal writes.

In any case, you can find the following average prices at the pumps currently:

95-octane petrol: HUF 639 /litre
Diesel: HUF 657 /litre

Despite the price reduction a litre of petrol still costs HUF 22 (3.6%) more and diesel HUF 20 (3.1%) more than at the end of last year. Compared to early October, the difference is HUF 55 and HUF 58, respectively.

Regional comparison

The increase in domestic fuel prices has been so great that the Hungarian government warned that it was

ready to intervene in the market if fuel prices were to move away from the regional level.

The government has repeatedly stressed it does not want local fuel prices to exceed the average of Hungary's neighbouring countries*, and the latest data (for 20 January) show that it was not the case. The excise tax hike did not affect Hungary's rankings too much and its average petrol price was "only" the fifth-highest and the price of diesel the third-highest among neighbours on Monday.

(*There was initially some confusion about what average should be taken into consideration. Experts claimed that including Czechia, Bulgaria, and Poland in the average was a mistake, for instance.)

The Central Statistical Office (KSH), which relies on the Weekly Oil Bulletin too, has since adjusted its methodology, but as of August it has switched to a monthly reporting frequency from the previous weekly frequency.

The average petrol price in Hungary's neighbouring countries was HUF 643 per litre on 20 January, which was merely HUF 4 higher than the average price in Hungary (HUF 639).

The average diesel price in Hungary's neighbouring countries was HUF 661 per litre on 20 January, which matched the average price in Hungary.

The Weekly Oil Bulletin was last released on 23 January with prices for 20 January, while the KSH is not set to update its monthly readings until early February.