For the first time in a long time, gasoline prices are falling again at Germany's filling stations.
Since November 14th, a good two weeks ago, the price for Super E10 has fallen on average from 1.706 to 1.642 euros per liter, i.e. by more than six cents.
The diesel price has also fallen, albeit not quite as strongly, from 1.577 to 1.543 euros per liter, i.e. by a good three cents.
Christian Siedenbiedel
Editor in business.
Follow I follow
After all, a slight decrease in fuel prices can be seen recently, writes the automobile club ADAC in its weekly analysis of the gasoline prices of 14,000 filling stations. However, November as a whole brought new highs for the year on average. One reason for the recent decline is likely to be the drop in oil prices. The price of crude oil had fallen by more than 11 percent last Friday, there had been further declines at the beginning of the week, and a slight countermovement on Wednesday. Crude oil now costs a good $ 71 a barrel, compared to more than $ 80 recently.
Heating oil also became cheaper again.
The price for 100 liters when purchasing 3,000 liters has fallen from 90.36 euros to 79.43 euros since October 18, as reported by the Internet portal Heizoel24, to which 500 dealers report their prices.
However, heating oil and gasoline are still more expensive than before the Corona crisis.
The reasons for the drop in oil prices include new concerns about the continuation of the corona pandemic - but also that the United States is throwing part of its national reserves on the market to counteract the bottlenecks and price developments.
Of course, it is not certain whether the oil price will remain this low.
The oil states OPEC plus started consultations on Wednesday whether they would suspend their monthly increase in oil production by 400,000 barrels per day for January.
A decision should be made on Thursday.
Carsten Fritsch, oil specialist at Commerzbank, believes that what the oil states decide is important for further price developments.
If the fall in oil and gasoline prices does not reverse itself, this could also dampen the recent high inflation rates somewhat.
The inflation rate in Germany could then have reached its peak in the current inflation wave in November at 6 percent according to the European calculation method - even if the forecasts for the further development are very controversial.
"I don't see any major developments in the opposite direction," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Hamburg's Berenberg bank: "November was probably the peak of German and euro inflation." Petrol and heating oil are likely to be "a little less overpriced" in December than in November says the economist.
For technical reasons related to the weight of package tours in the European calculation of inflation according to the Harmonized Consumer Price Index HICP, the decline in the European harmonized rate in December is likely to be more pronounced than in the nationally measured rate of German consumer price inflation.