In Russia, the price of gasoline is rising at a record pace, economic observers report.
The situation in the Russian economy continues to worsen in several directions at once. Russian media reports that retail gasoline prices in the Russian Federation in 2023 increased by 6.7% after the price of fuel practically did not rise in 2022. The jump in fuel prices in the second year of the war has already become one of the strongest in 10 years.
At the same time, the end of the year has not yet been reached – until the end of December, the cost of gasoline may rise even more.
From January 1 to August 20, 2023, the average price of gasoline at filling stations in Russia increased by 3.35 rubles, to 54.3 rubles, Rosstat said on Wednesday. AI-92 rose in price by 6.4%, to 50.23 rubles, AI-95 – by 6.7%, to 84.85 rubles.
Fuel prices began to rise in late spring. Prior to this, from January 2022 to April 2023, the average price for filling stations in Russia remained almost at the same level.
The jump in gasoline prices could be one of the strongest in 10 years. The accumulated fuel inflation by the end of August has already exceeded the figures for the full years of 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020.
One of the reasons for the rise in fuel prices is its shortage on the St. Petersburg Trade Exchange, where regional networks of gas stations that are not part of vertically integrated oil companies buy fuel, said “Agency” Vice-President of the Russian Fuel Union Yuri Matveiko. This was also confirmed by an employee of a foreign monitoring agency, who asked not to be named. They say that the shortage is caused by an increase in fuel exports.
“Regional networks of filling stations have begun to buy fuel on the exchange much less. The offer on the exchange is not enough, and it is very difficult to purchase oil products there,” Matveiko said. He says that vertically integrated companies are now selling wholesale fuel on the stock exchange for 3-5 rubles more than in their own retail chains.
“Russia has established the export of oil products according to gray schemes using the shadow fleet, fuel is being washed out of the domestic market,” another oil trader, who asked not to be identified, told the Agency.
Another reason for the rise in prices, as Kommersant wrote, in particular, was the reduction of damper payments from the budget to oil refiners, who, without receiving subsidies from the state, shifted these costs to consumers.
Retail prices for gasoline began to grow following wholesale prices. According to the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, wholesale prices for AI-92 gasoline increased by 89% from January to mid-August 2023, and for AI-95 – by 85%. This did not result in an immediate jump in retail prices, because many regional filling station chains (they account for about a third of fuel sales in Russia) buy fuel not on the stock exchange, but through direct contacts with oil refiners.
“Izvestia” wrote that in a number of regions in Russia, in particular in the South and the Volga region, there has been a shortage of gasoline in recent days. But Agency sources on the market said that the lack of fuel is not widespread and in most regions (in particular, in Moscow and the region, in the Urals, in Siberia) there is enough oil products.
In May 2023, Agency, citing industry sources, wrote that gasoline would rise in price by 3-5 rubles in 2023, mainly due to a reduction in the domestic supply of petroleum products, as well as the fact that the government halved subsidies for oil refining.
Earlier it was reported that after Putin’s ultimatum, Russian oil exports collapsed for a quarter.
Author: Mark Voroshilov
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2023-08-24 11:29:54
