Photo taken on March 18, 2022 shows diesel and gasoline prices displayed on a board at a gas station in Frankfurt, Germany. (Photo by Armando Babani/Xinhua)
Prices of premium gasoline rose on average by 41.9 percent year-on-year, while diesel even skyrocketed 62.6 percent, according to Destatis. Light heating oil was almost two and a half times more expensive.
BERLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Fuel prices at German gas stations in March rose more sharply than ever before, even at a faster pace than during the two oil crises and the financial market crisis, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Wednesday.
Prices of premium gasoline rose on average by 41.9 percent year-on-year, while diesel even skyrocketed 62.6 percent, according to Destatis. Light heating oil was almost two and a half times more expensive.
A customer looks on a screen displaying the cost as he fuels a vehicle at a gas station in Berlin, capital of Germany, March 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
"Similar developments have so far only been observed in connection with the two oil crises in 1974 and 1980 and the financial market and economic crisis in 2008/2009," Destatis noted. However, the year-on-year increase in consumer fuel prices had never been higher than in March 2022.
According to the General German Automobile Club (ADAC), the nationwide average price per liter of standard E10 fuel in Germany climbed to a record of 2.19 euros (2.37 U.S. dollars) in mid-March, and the price of diesel even reached 2.29 euros.
A vehicle runs past a gas station in Berlin, capital of Germany, March 11, 2022. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
The previous highest price increase for fuel in Germany was recorded in February 1974, with a year-on-year increase of 32.5 percent, according to Destatis.
An even higher increase was recorded for light heating oil, for which private consumers had to pay 183.3 percent more in December 1973 than in the same month of the previous year. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars) ■
