Status: 04/20/2022 12:32 p.m
The prices for fuel, heating oil and gas rose more sharply in March than at any time in the past 50 years. Even during the two oil crises and the financial crisis, prices rose less extreme.
Fuel prices in Germany rose more sharply in March than at any time in the past 50 years. The rate of increase in fuel prices was even higher than during the two oil crises of 1973/1974 and 1979/1980 and during the financial market crisis of 2008/2009. This is the result of calculations by the Federal Statistical Office.
In March of this year, consumers had to pay an average of 41.9 percent more for premium petrol and 62.6 percent more for diesel than in March 2021. Light heating oil was even 144 percent more expensive than a year earlier.
The statisticians cited the effects of the Corona crisis and the Russian attack on Ukraine as reasons. Because import prices in particular shot up: In February 2022, the import prices for oil almost reached the historic high of 2012 with an increase of 256.5 percent compared to the same month in the previous year.
Gas prices up more than 250 percent
In February, the prices for imported natural gas rose by 256.5 percent year-on-year to an unprecedented level. The Federal Office did not quantify the effects on consumer prices.
Similar developments in energy prices have so far only occurred in Germany in connection with the two oil crises of 1974 and 1980 and the financial market and economic crisis of 2008/2009. In November 1973, for example, oil import prices rose by 41.6 percent compared with October, triggered by the start of the Yom Kippur War. At that time, the oil-exporting countries organized in OPEC reduced their output in order to put pressure on western countries.
In March 1974, imported oil cost more than three times what it had been a year earlier. From the consumer’s point of view, the rise in fuel prices peaked in February 1974 with an increase of 32.5 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.
High price jumps in the second oil crisis
In March 1980, during the second oil crisis, the price of imported oil doubled from the same month last year. At that time, the production losses in connection with the Islamic Revolution in Iran since January 1979 and the First Gulf War, which began in September 1980, caused a shortage of supply on the world markets. Import prices remained at a high level for years and only fell again in the following years after peaking in 1985.
The price jumps during the second oil crisis were also clearly noticeable for private customers. In July 1979, light heating oil cost 110.8 percent more than a year earlier. Gasoline prices reached a record high in September 1981, when fuel cost 27.7 percent more than a year earlier.
The financial crisis caused prices to rise extremely
Oil import prices reached their highest level to date in July 2008. At that time, as a reaction to the financial crisis, they rose by around 57 percent compared to the previous year. The financial market crisis began in August 2007 in the United States and reached its peak in September 2008 with the collapse of the major US bank Lehman Brothers.
In the summer of 2008, consumer prices for fuel and heating oil reached record levels. In June 2008, light heating oil cost 61.8 percent more for private customers than in the same month of the previous year, and in July 2008 fuel prices were 15.2 percent more expensive than in July 2007.
Oil price currently at a high level
The oil price is currently at a high level. A barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea Brent currently costs 108.59 US dollars. That’s $1.34 more than the day before. Traders justify the increased prices with the prospect that demand for crude oil in China will pick up again. After the strict corona lockdown in the economic metropolis of Shanghai, car manufacturers and supermarkets have started to resume operations.