Serbia Fuel Prices Rise 15.4%, EU Sees 23.8% Jump

Fuel and lubricant prices in the European Union were 23.8% higher in August than a year earlier, Eurostat said in its August report on price trends. In Serbia, the year on year increase for the same month was 15.4%, according to a calculation by N1, below the European average but still enough to push diesel at domestic pumps to an all time high.

The increase in the EU has accelerated for three months running: it stood at 13.7% in June, 16.9% in July and 23.8% in August. Serbia followed the same path, with the annual rate at 12.6% in June, 11.3% in July, then jumping to 15.4% in August. Eurostat reports that prices in August were higher than a year earlier in 26 of the 27 member states, and in 18 of them the increase topped 20%.

Which countries saw the biggest and smallest increases

The largest annual increases were recorded in:

• Bulgaria, 34.5%
• Lithuania, 28.8%
• Finland, 27.6%
• Germany, 27.5%
• France, 27.4%

The smallest increases were in Hungary, at 1.3%, Sweden, at 6.1%, and Ireland, at 11.7%. Outside the European Union, fuel got cheaper in Norway, down 0.1%, and in Iceland, where prices fell by as much as 24.9%.

Month on month, from July to August, diesel in the EU rose 8.3% and gasoline 3.3%, the same Eurostat data shows.

Why is fuel cheaper in Serbia than in Germany?

The answer lies in excise duties, not in the purchase price of oil. The Serbian government currently applies 25% lower excise duties on petroleum products: instead of the full excise of 72 dinars per liter of gasoline, consumers pay 54 dinars, while the excise on diesel has been cut from 74.04 to 55.53 dinars. The measure runs until September 27. Serbian media have previously reported that the government extended the lower fuel excise duties specifically until that date.

Despite the excise discount, diesel reached 236 dinars per liter as of September 18, a new all time high, while BMB 95 gasoline climbed to 207 dinars. Both prices rose by two dinars compared with the week before. Converted into euros, according to N1’s calculation, a liter of gasoline in Serbia costs 1.76 euros and diesel 2.01 euros. By comparison, gasoline in Germany costs 2.36 euros and diesel 2.43, in France 2.17 and 2.29, while Bulgaria, despite posting the largest annual increase in the EU, still offers some of the lowest prices on the continent: 1.62 euros for gasoline and 1.86 for diesel.

Prices also spiked three years ago

The current record is not the first in recent years. In early July 2022, diesel cost 218 dinars and gasoline 205 dinars per liter. By November of that year, diesel had risen to 222 dinars, while gasoline, in the opposite direction, fell to 186 dinars. Today’s 236 dinars for diesel is therefore 18 dinars higher than the previous peak from November 2022.

New fuel prices in Serbia are due to be announced on Friday, September 25, while the current lower excise duties expire on September 27. The government has already pushed back that deadline once, when it extended the discounted excise duties to this date, but no decision on a possible further extension has been announced so far.