Natural gas prices for Romanians: proportion of taxes, third largest in EU

The largest share of taxes in the natural gas price structure for households has been recorded in Denmark (55% of the price), the Netherlands (53%), Romania (47%) and Sweden (44%) in the first half of this year, according to data released on Wednesday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).

The EU average is 26%. The lowest weights of taxes have been recorded in the UK (7%), Luxembourg (10%), Greece (16%), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia (17%).

For the electricity, the weight of taxes in the prices for the Romanian population is 27%, below the European average of 37%, but much above the lowest levels of 12-18% in the Balkan countries and 18% in Turkey, without mentioning Malta, with 5%.

Prices

In euro, Romania recorded the lowest average gas price for households (3.2 euros/100 kWh) in the first semester, which is more than half of the EU average price 28 (5.8 euro/100 kWh).

Romanians benefit from one of the lowest average prices in euro for electricity as well, (12 euro / 100kWh, the fourth lowest, the same as in Croatia and after Bulgaria, Lithuania and Hungary).

By contrast, Romania is above the European averages, according to the purchasing power standards (PPS): 6.4 PPS compared to 5.8 for gas and 24.2 PPS compared to 20.4 for electricity.

The lowest prices in terms of PPS for the natural gas for households have been recorded in Luxembourg (3.5 PPS/100 kWh), the United Kingdom (4.3 PPS/100 kWh) and Belgium (4.7 PPS/100 kWh) and the highest prices, in Portugal (9.7 PPS/100 kWh), Sweden (9.5 PPS/100 kWh) and the Czech Republic (8.4 PPS/100 kWh).

The lowest electricity prices for the population in terms of PPS were in Finland (12.8 PPS/100 kWh), Luxembourg (13.5 PPS/100 kWh) and the Netherlands (14.2 PPS/100 kWh). The highest were in Germany (28.7 PPS/100 kWh), Portugal (28.6 PPS/100 kWh), Poland (25.9 PPS/100 kWh), Belgium (25.6 PPS/100 kWh), Spain (25.4 PPS/100 kWh).

In Europe, the highest electricity prices for the population are in Denmark and Germany (both with 30.5 euros/100 kWh) and Belgium (28 euros/100 kWh).

Variations

The average price on the first semester of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016 decreased by 0.5% for the electricity offered to the population, down to 20.4 euro/100 kWh, and for the natural gas to households by 6.3%, to 5.8 euro / 100 kWh.

The largest price increases for electricity (in national currencies) were in Cyprus (+ 22.0%), Greece (+ 12.8%), Belgium (+ 10.0%), Poland (6.9%) Sweden (+ 5.5%) and Spain (+ 5.1%).

Romania stands out by the decrease in the average price for electricity (-4%), after Italy (-11.2%), Croatia (-10.2%) and Lithuania (-9.3%), Luxembourg (-4, 9%), Austria (-4.1%), and before the Netherlands 3.6%.

For the natural gas, the largest declines were in Croatia (-17.5%), Portugal (-15.3%), Lithuania (-11.6%), Latvia (-10.8%) and Bulgaria (-10 ,3%). The highest increases were in Estonia (+ 21.1%), Denmark (+ 12.7%) and Sweden (+ 10.8%).

In Romania, the average price in the first semester of 2017 compared to the first semester of 2016 decreased by 4.1%.