The price of petrol has fallen significantly again in recent weeks.

On popular summer holiday travel days, there were always price peaks, especially at the motorway service stations along the main travel routes.

On average, however, the price for Super E10 has fallen to 1.748 euros per liter according to figures from the Internet portal Clever Tanken.

This is significantly less even than the day after the cut in the energy tax on fuel;

before the tax cut, the price was above 2 euros.

Diesel, where the tax cut was not quite as strong, recently cost 1.939 euros per liter;

that was about one cent more than on the day after the tax cut; here, too, the prices before the tax cut were well above 2 euros.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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The last relief came from the oil price.

In the second half of July, this had temporarily exceeded the mark of 110 dollars per barrel (159 liter barrel) for the North Sea Brent, but then fell again to a good 102 dollars on Monday.

The price is fluctuating at the moment, sometimes driven by worries about supply bottlenecks due to Russia sanctions, sometimes driven by worries about global demand due to a possible recession.

More fuel is being used again

Meanwhile, the Federal Statistical Office reports that the reduction in energy tax, which was limited to the end of August, is having an impact on the sale of petrol at petrol stations in Germany.

Because fuel is a little cheaper again, more is consumed again.

The price-adjusted sales of independent petrol stations, which are considered an approximation of fuel sales, increased in June with the tax cut by 6.4 percent compared to the previous month, but are still 8 percent below the same month last year.

That means: With the sharp rise in petrol prices over the course of the year, drivers have fueled up noticeably less – but since the tax cut, more again.

That sounds banal at first;

However, petrol experts dispute the extent to which motorists can adjust their demand to higher prices in the short term.

Some might drive a little more slowly on the Autobahn, others avoid unnecessary journeys or take the bike for shorter tours and the train for longer ones.

Overall, however, the so-called elasticity of demand, which describes precisely this reaction, should not be particularly high in the short term, according to many studies.

Things look a little different in the longer term, for example if commuters reorganize their way to work or buy vehicles with lower fuel consumption.

After all, the latest gas station figures show that there are reactions.

The tax reduction on petrol, the so-called tank rebate, has obviously been passed on to motorists more than it first appeared.

In June, one could get the impression that the prices at the gas stations were raised before the tax cut, then fell for a day with the tax cut, but were raised again significantly in the days that followed.

Since then, there have been studies with mixed results on how much of the tax cut got to consumers.

The central problem here: You don't know exactly how high the price of petrol would be at a certain point in time without the tax cut - various effects can overlap.

The RWI research institute has now used a larger amount of data to compare how petrol prices in Germany and France developed before and after the tax cut.

The result: Before the tax cut, prices in Germany were higher than in France, and significantly lower afterwards.

Before the tax cut in May, the average price in Germany for diesel was a good 13 cents per liter more than in France, and for Super E10 it was 3.5 cents.

In June, on the other hand, diesel prices in Germany were on average a good 8 cents lower than in France, for Super E10 around 28 cents.

If you estimate how the gaps between the two countries have changed, you arrive at 21 cents per liter for diesel, which drivers in Germany have to pay less than those in France since the tax cut, and 31.5 cents for Super E10.

In the case of diesel, that would even be more than a complete transfer of the tax reduction, in the case of Super E10 at least the transfer of a significant part.

However, the comparison with France is only a makeshift.

If, for example, the mineral oil companies had expanded their margins in both countries during this time, this would not be noticeable in such a comparison.

There could also be other reasons why prices in the two countries have developed differently at times.

Price cap only for private individuals

Meanwhile, the petrol price cap introduced in Hungary does not appear to be a complete success.

Its validity will be further restricted, the government announced.

In future, the reduced price of 480 forints (1.19 euros) per liter of premium petrol or diesel will only apply to privately registered vehicles and taxis.

The drivers of other vehicles should pay the market price at the gas stations, which is around 50 percent more.

Vehicles registered abroad have been excluded from the preferential petrol price since the end of May.

Commercial vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tons, with the exception of agricultural machinery, must also be refueled at the market price.

The petrol price brake as a whole applies until October 1st.

The government justified the new restriction by saying that maintenance work was pending in a refinery near Budapest.

Currently, the plant of the mineral oil company MOL produces all of Hungary's fuel needs.

In the future, petrol will also be imported from abroad – at significantly higher prices.

The government is also releasing a quarter of its strategic fuel reserves.