After weeks of decline, fuel prices have risen sharply in recent days amid shortages linked to strikes at TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil. On average, a liter of diesel was quoted last week at 1.8035 euros per liter, compared to 1.5914 euros for 95-E10 without lead.
High prices that could be even higher in the absence of the various discounts granted by the government and TotalEnergies since April. And motorists are not wrong. As evidenced by the INSEE data, “the rate of spending on fuel with a credit card, corrected for price variations, is marked by the daily shocks linked to the Government’s announcements about the discount at the pump implemented since the second quarter of 2022 to limit the rise in fuel prices”, underlines the Institute of Statistics in its latest economic report.
On March 11, Jean Castex, then Prime Minister, announced the entry into force of a first discount of 18 cents per liter from April. In the days after this statement, on March 12 and 13, French fuel spending fell by 27.4 and 36.5% respectively compared to the same days of 2019, the last year before the health crisis. In addition, fuel purchases between March 12 and 31 were about “a quarter below their level at the beginning of the month” in March, notes INSEE.
In other words, the French have made fewer trips to the pump, pending the entry into force of the bonus of 18 cents. This was confirmed on April 1, when fuel costs jumped 51.2% compared to the same day rate three years later, and 28% the next day. “This increase was, however, very punctual and did not compensate for the fall in March,” says the statistics institute.
+34% by increasing the discount to 30 cents
The same trend was observed four months later. After a decline in the last days of August, spending on fuel rose by 34% and 18% on September 1 and 2, dates marked by the reinforcement of the Government bonus to 30 cents and the entry into force of the TotalEnergies bonus of 20 cents.
Despite these daily shocks, the price level of petroleum products (fuel, fuel oil, etc.) in 2022 has encouraged the French to reduce their spending, with bank card transactions for these products around a 2% below its level since March 2022. before the crisis
Source: BFM TV
