Expensive petrol prices, here’s the reason for the increase and the scenarios for the summer

TURIN. It really seems like the usual summer flare up in fuel prices: the holiday season is coming and the companies are taking advantage of it to increase the price lists of petrol and diesel, so much do they know that departing motorists will have to pay anyway. The oil companies deny that speculation is taking place, but in the meantime the price increases in Italy are an objective fact: in “served” mode petrol has returned to costing an average of 2 euros per litre, while the Quotidiano Energia observatory notes that international quotations of fuels are slightly down and therefore cannot be relied on as justification.

According to another observatory, the (official) one of the Ministry of Transport, on the national network the average price of petrol in “self-service” mode in the latest survey is 1.865 euros per liter (against 1.860 in the previous one), with the various brands between 1.855 and 1.879 euros per liter (in “no logo” dispensers, i.e. not linked to certain companies, you pay a little less: 1.848).

Instead, the average price of “self” diesel is 1.712 euros per liter (compared to the previous 1.704), with individual companies ranging between 1.696 and 1.726 euros (no logo 1.695). As for fuel in served mode, for petrol the average price charged is round, having reached 2.000 euros per liter (1.996 the previous figure) with plants offering prices between 1.939 and 2.079 euros per liter (no logo 1.900). It should be noted that this price is not a record: last year, in the most acute phases of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, it reached 2.20 euros.

Moving on to consider the average diesel served, in the most recent survey it was 1.852 euros per liter (against 1.845), with the companies’ points of sale offering prices between 1.786 and 1.930 euros per liter (no logo 1.749).

Finally, the prices of LPG are positioned between 0.715 and 0.737 euros per liter (no logo 0.696) and those of methane for cars between 1.421 and 1.491 (no logo 1.441 euros per litre).

Apart from the immediate impact on motorists’ pockets, it is to be feared that the flashback in fuel prices will jeopardize the drop in inflation, which is underway in Italy but is neither decided nor consolidated. Already in the preliminary June numbers, Istat had detected a slow ebb in average consumer prices, a ebb which, albeit timid yesterday, was confirmed by the final Istat data: inflation on an annual basis fell to 6.4% (in any case very high) while the so-called core inflation in June, i.e. excluding energy products and fresh foodstuffs, fell to 5.6%. The so-called “shopping cart”, i.e. the set of most frequently purchased products (such as food and home and personal care products) is also slowing down, which in June was 10.5%, i.e. still stratospheric but slightly declining.

Even these modest advances in consumer prices risk being compromised by high fuel prices, because almost all the goods that we find on the shelves of shops and supermarkets, at one stage or another of production and distribution, are transported on means of transport that run on petrol or diesel, therefore increases in petrol stations have a pervasive effect on general inflation.

The Codacons consumer association denounces that “in some sectors, such as food and transport, price lists continue to remain at very high levels”, and the National Consumer Union does the math and calculates that for a couple with two children “the + 6.4% inflation means a sting of 1834 euros on an annual basis. Of these, 846 are used only to cope with food and drink price increases”. According to Confesercenti, “behind the contrasting dynamics of inflation lie ruses and speculative phenomena”.