ZAP
One week’s international accounts affect national accounts the following week – but how much does raw material count?
New variation in fuel prices in Portugal this week: 5.5 cents for diesel and 3 cents for gasoline, starting today, Monday.
In mainland Portugal, the average price of diesel is now 2,085 euros per liter, while a liter of simple 95 gasoline costs an average of 1,908 euros.
The drop happens, but it is minimal. The accounts show a drop of just 1.3% in the case of gasoline and 1.9% in diesel.
That is, the falls in the final price do not reach 2% – when the barrel oil Brent, a reference for Europe, was 9% cheaper.
It is worth noting that one week’s international market accounts affect the following week’s national accounts. And oil has gotten cheaper in the last two weeks; however, this drop is not having the same scale in fuel prices in Portugal.
The newspaper reinforces the idea that the decline in oil prices is having little effect on final prices of gasoline and diesel.
Portugal, and other countries, have warned that the pretext of war in Iran is leading to excessive rents (extraordinary profit margins) in oil companies.
In fact, at the end of March, the Food and Economic Security Authority (ASAE) and the National Entity for the Energy Sector (ENSE) already carried out inspection and criminal prevention operations at gas stations, in the fight against price speculation.
A few days ago, the Governments of Portugal, Germany, Spain, Italy and Austria sent a letter to the European Commission to create a temporary tax on the new extraordinary profits of energy companies, as happened at the start of the war in Ukraine, in 2022.
