Fuels have posted their fourth consecutive week of declines, so gasoline has already accumulated a drop of close to 10% so far this month, driven by the effect of the Government’s fiscal package that began to be applied in early October.
Specifically, the liter of gasoline stands on average at 1.751 euros, after falling 1.63% compared with the previous week. With this new cut, it moves even further away from the annual highs reached at the beginning of October, after stringing together thirteen consecutive rises since June, and it settles at lows not seen since the end of August.
Thus, this fuel reinforces the impact of the tax relief approved by the Executive, which again raised the subsidy to 20 cents per liter from the five cents in force until last October 1, which has made it possible to accumulate a reduction of 9.74% in the last four weeks.
As for diesel, whose liter already enjoyed a 20-cent aid since early September, its average price has fallen again this week by 0.1% compared with the previous one, to 1.887 euros per liter.
In this way, diesel adds a cut of 2.3% in the last three weeks and falls back to its lowest level since mid-September, according to data from the European Union’s Oil Bulletin consulted by Europa Press.
The Government’s subsidies for fuels, included in the third package of measures in response to the impact of the conflict in the Middle East and applied in the Hydrocarbons Tax, set aid of 20 cents per liter for gasoline and diesel in October, which will go to 13 cents in November and 6 cents in December. They also include an automatic safeguard clause: if oil remains expensive and prices rise by more than 15%, the subsidy would return to 20 cents in November or December.
With these reductions, both gasoline and diesel move away from the barrier of two euros per liter, a threshold they had been gradually approaching in the last weeks of September, when they came to mark highs since 2022.
Despite the drop, filling the tank remains much more expensive
Taking as a reference the prices of the EU Oil Bulletin this week, filling a medium 55-liter diesel tank now costs 103.78 euros, that is, about 26.95 euros more than a year ago, when the amount was around 76.83 euros.
In the case of gasoline vehicles, filling a standard 55-liter tank currently costs about 96.3 euros, which represents 15.62 euros more than twelve months ago, when the cost was 80.68 euros.
The escalation of recent months, after the outbreak of the conflict in Iran, had brought both fuels close to the highs recorded in the summer of 2022. In July of that year, gasoline reached 2.141 euros per liter and diesel reached 2.1 euros.
The final price of fuels is conditioned by numerous elements: their own specific quote (independent of that of crude oil), the evolution of oil, the tax burden, the cost of the raw material and transport, as well as the gross margins of the companies.
In addition, variations in the international price of oil are not reflected immediately at the pumps, but rather do so with a certain time lag.
Spain maintains fuel prices below the European average
With the current levels, unleaded 95-octane gasoline continues in Spain below the average of the European Union, which stands at 1.954 euros per liter, and also below that of the eurozone, where the average price reaches 2.032 euros.
As for diesel, the amount in Spain continues to be lower than the Community average, set at 2.146 euros per liter, and than that of the euro area, where it is paid on average at 2.201 euros.