Worldwide rates of gasoline price increases query

I was talking to a friend in Australia the other night, and he said gas prices have been skyrocketing there, too, even though the Australian dollar is strong. I conclude the high oil futures prices are not from the weak American dollar, but mainly from sheer overspeculation in the futures market. It is crazy to allow the economies of major countries to be at the mercy of a bunch of hedge bettors who react to every little forest fire in the World. The government has to step in, and put some limits on the speculation in this country. Your local gas station is responding daily to the oil futures price--which depends on which way the wind blew yesterday in Nigeria--not on true supply/demand.

 

In Finland gas price was about 1,4€/liter in january and at the moment it is 1,5€/liter.

Our biggest relief is that dollar is so low but when it gets up against euro our gas prices raise dramaticly,if oil barrel stays same level in dollars.

 

I posted in another area in this forum that gas prices in the UK had risen by about 27% in a year in pound sterling (£). The price I paid a year ago was £0.89 a litre. That same litre now costs £1.13 2 weeks ago. Yesterday I saw £1.16 a litre on the adboards, which is now a 30% rise, similar to your US increase.

 

IIRC it was well over £1 per litre, something like £1.09. However, diesel, which accounts for approximately half of all new car sales in Europe, is even more expensive and the gap between it and petrol is widening thanks to industry and haulage use.

I filled up my Prius for the first time this evening (!) and paid £1.18 for 95-RON unleaded; super was £1.22 and diesel £1.28. I saw £1.30 for diesel in London today.

 

Here in NZ petrol (regular) is $2(nzd) a litre. Calculating the US prices and currency conversion rate shows US prices are $1.33 (nzd) a litre. If memory serves, 2 years ago we were paying between $.98 and $1.14 a litre (prices changed almost weekly).

NZ exports its high-grade oil and imports low-grade oil to refine. Go figure!

Speculation is a problem. The fact that oil is still traded in $US is even a bigger problem. The fact that oil companies are routinely declining to rebuild capacity after natural and man-made disasters (so they can benefit from higher prices) is yet another problem.

 

Last year in Italy petrol was €1.36 - now €1.52
In Feb 2008 €1.38 - Per litre, naturally.

In Europe you have fixed value duties - 56 cents a litre in Italy. Add production costs and VAT and you get the price at the pump.

If tomorrow fuel was free of charge, in Italy you would still pay 56 cents + 20% VAT = 67.2 cents a litre.

 

2 years ago, gas in Ottawa, Canada was about 60 cents per litre and spiked to $1.00 per litre before falling back to about 60 cents. At this time Canadian $ was worth about 80 cents US.

4-6 months ago Canadian $ spiked to $1.10 US and is now about par $1.01 US.

About 3-4 months ago gas returned to $1.00 per litre and has since risen to about $1.27 - $1.29 per litre now.