Press release No. N 034 of 26 May 2021
• End of the temporary VAT reduction and introduction of CO2 pricing have an upward effect on prices
• Base effect has an additional upward effect on the year-on-year rates of price increase
• Import prices for crude oil in March 2021 back on pre-crisis level
• Crude oil imports in 2020 at lowest level since 1992
WIESBADEN – Drivers are noticing that the prices at the petrol stations have gone up. There are a variety of reasons for this, ranging from the effects of the Coronavirus crisis to the CO2 charge. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the prices of supergrade petrol increased by roughly a quarter (+24.8%) in April 2021 compared with the same month a year earlier, while diesel fuel prices climbed 19.5% and those of liquefied petroleum gas rose by 14.2% in the same period. Since January 2021, both the end of the temporary reduction of value added tax and the introduction of the CO2 charge have had an upward effect on motor fuel prices. Within the scope of CO2 pricing, 25 euros per tonne of CO2 have been charged on climate-damaging fossil fuels since 1 January 2021. Consumers have faced above-average increases in all motor fuel prices (April 2021: +23.3% on April 2020). For comparison: the change rate of the consumer price index as a whole was +2.0% in the same period.
