Bulgaria Records EU’s Highest Annual Fuel Price Increase in June

Bulgaria remained the European Union country with the steepest annual increase in fuel prices in June, according to the latest data released by Eurostat. Prices for fuels and lubricants used by private vehicles rose by 26% compared with June of last year, the highest annual increase among all EU member states. Lithuania recorded the second-largest increase at 23.5%, followed by Romania with 23.1% and Finland with 22%. At the opposite end of the ranking, Hungary posted the smallest annual rise at 2.3%, while Poland reported a 5.8% increase. In the remaining EU countries, annual fuel price growth ranged from 7.9% in Spain to 18.6% in Cyprus. Although Bulgaria continues to lead the bloc in annual fuel inflation, the pace of price growth has slowed in recent months. Annual fuel prices increased by 33.9% in May and 27.8% in April before easing to 26% in June. Across the European Union, fuel and lubricant prices rose by an average of 13.7% year-on-year in June. That marked a significant slowdown compared with May, when annual growth reached 20.7%, and April, when it stood at 20.8%. On a monthly basis, however, fuel prices moved in the opposite direction. Compared with May, diesel prices across the EU declined by an average of 6.4% in June, while gasoline prices fell by 4.2%. Bulgaria was among the countries with the sharpest monthly drop in diesel prices. Diesel became 9.4% cheaper than in May, with only the Czech Republic, where prices fell by 11.3%, and Poland, with a 9.7% decline, recording larger decreases. The smallest monthly declines in diesel prices were reported in Hungary, where prices slipped by 0.6%, followed by Italy with a 1.4% decrease and Slovenia with 1.6%. Gasoline prices also declined in almost every EU member state during June. The only exceptions were Cyprus, where prices increased by 0.7%, and Italy, where they rose by 0.5%. The largest monthly reductions in gasoline prices were recorded in Sweden at 7.8%, Belgium at 7%, and Poland at 6.6%.