A Romanian with average income can buy 669 liters of gasoline with the average monthly salary, according to data collected by Picodi.com. The analysis team examined the change in gasoline prices in the first half of 2021 compared to the previous year and calculated in which of the states is the to fill a tank with gasoline for the average salary. Romania ranks in 29th place.
Rising prices at gas stations
The first half of 2021 was characterized by the gradual thawing of the economy and the increase of gasoline prices compared to the first half of 2020, say those from Picodi. In Europe, the largest price increases were in Hungary (+ 20.2%), Turkey (+ 19.4%) and Luxembourg (+ 16.9%).
The United Kingdom marked a 12.7% increase in prices, ranking 10th among European countries. Gasoline prices also rose in countries such as Germany (+ 10.6%), Spain (+ 9.3%) and Ireland (+ 5.2%). The opposite trend was observed only in Malta and Albania, where average year-on-year petrol prices fell slightly. Romania is on the 10th place in the top of price increases in the first half of 2021, with an increase of 12.7%.
In Europe, the Russians fill up the cheapest – in this country, 1 liter of gasoline costs 0.54 euros. On the other hand, the Netherlands has the highest prices: 1.72 euros for 1 liter. In the United Kingdom, the average price of gasoline in the first half of 2021 was 5.33 lei or 1.08 euros, which means that it ranked 29th out of 42 countries considered.
Analysts have calculated how many liters of gasoline can be bought for the average salary in different European countries. For the third consecutive year, the undefeated leader of the ranking is Switzerland, with 3,582 liters of gasoline. Luxembourg and Denmark complete the podium with 2,955 and 2,328 liters, respectively.
In Romania, according to the latest data from the National Institute for Statistics (INS), the average gross salary amounts to 5,804 lei per month. This means that a Romanian can buy 669 liters of gasoline for the average monthly salary (29th place). In the previous year, Romanians could buy 673 liters of gasoline for the average gross salary.
The situation is not too bad in Sweden (1,771 liters and 9th place), Germany (1,786 liters and 8th place) and Ireland (2,029 liters and 5th place). Albania, Moldova and Ukraine occupied the last three places with 289, 358 and 389 liters, respectively.
Out of 104 countries surveyed, the lowest price of gasoline was observed in Algeria (0.29 euros per liter), and the highest price – in Hong Kong (2.03 euros per liter).
In the global ranking of purchasing power, the Gulf countries are constantly on the podium:
- Qatar – 6,532 liters;
- Saudi Arabia – 5,170 liters;
- Kuwait – 5,158 liters.
Americans can buy 4,723 liters of gasoline for the average salary, Australians – 4,128 liters, Canadians – 2,616 liters, and the Chinese – 955 liters.
The worst situation was observed in Cuba. In this country, the average salary can only buy 26 liters of gasoline (2 liters less than in the previous year). Tajikistan and Zambia are only slightly better, with 188 and 214 liters respectively.
“It is also worth looking at Venezuela. This country is struggling with an unstable economic situation, but has maintained last year’s limits on gasoline purchases. Every citizen can buy 120 liters of gasoline at about 0.0015 euros per liter. Once the limit is exceeded, the price of gasoline increases to 0.42 euros per liter. According to our calculations, the average salary in this country allows you to buy 230 liters of gasoline (120 liters subsidized and 110 liters at the total price), with 82 liters more than last year “, shows the Picodi analysis.
How the study was conducted
The petrol index is an annual ranking of the price of petrol to salary ratio, made by Picodi since 2019.
This report uses the average net salary according to the latest available data provided by national statistical offices or relevant ministries. In some countries, where official wage statistics are not available, we used information from Numbeo.
Average prices for the first half of 2021 in 104 countries are based on data from globalpetrolprices.com and other local sources. To get the number of liters, we divided the average salary by the average price of 1 liter of gasoline. For currency conversion, we used the average Google Finance exchange rate for the past 90 days.
Translated From Romanian by Service For Life S.R.L.