The specialized site Global Petrol Prices has an updated survey that has just been published for gasoline and allows for easy comparison of prices around the world.
As expected, the countries with the cheapest liter of gasoline in the world are oil-producing countries: Iran, Libya and Venezuela sell the fuel, taxes included, for between 2.9 and 3.5 cents on the dollar. That is, at today’s official price, about 30 pesos.
The countries with cheap gasoline that follow also have availability of oil, but the prices are a long step, 10 times above the first three.
At the other extreme, whoever wants to load gasoline in Hong Kong has to pay $3.24 per liter, far from the $2.29 in the second most expensive country in the world, which is the Principality of Monaco.
According to the survey, the price paid in Argentina is around 1,122 dollars per liter, or at the official rate something like 1,060 pesos, and it is ranked 58th out of the 169 countries in which prices are surveyed. As an example of the complexity with which fuel prices are defined, gasoline is sold in our country at almost the same price as in China (1,165 U$S/liter) or in Australia (1,138 U$S/liter).
Price of gasoline in Latin America
Given the complexity with which each economy determines the value of fuels, it may be more interesting to look at the panorama in our subcontinent where there is more similarity in socio-economic structures and conditions.
Cristina Helena de Mello, professor of economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC), tells Bloomberg Linea that “the main difference lies in taxes and subsidies. Of course, there are also costs of product distribution and greater or lesser competition in distribution.”
Venezuela and Bolivia are an example of how state price subsidies can affect the final price paid by consumers, but also the fiscal pressures that this decision can entail.
The most expensive gasoline in Latin America
On the other hand, the countries with the most expensive price for gasoline are Uruguay (US$ 1.97 per liter), Chile (US$ 1.45) and Costa Rica (US$ 1.40).
The director of the Energy Institute of the Austral University in Argentina, Roberto Carnicer, explains to this medium that “Chile and Uruguay import gasoline or crude oil for gasoline,” which directly affects prices.
